NEET Grace Marks Controversy: NCERT said- new books are in the market for 4 years; NTA had said- grace marks had to be given due to difference in books

In the NEET grace marks controversy, NCERT has now put forth its side and rejected NTA’s claim that the questions of the NEET exam were out of syllabus. NCERT director Dinesh Prasad Saklani said that there is no truth in NTA’s ‘out of syllabus’ statement.

Saklani said at a press conference in Mysore, “Revised NCERT books are available in both print and online formats since 2020. We don’t know why the question makers referred to books before 2020.”

NTA had said that the information in NCERT books has changed
Actually, 44 top scorers of NEET exam had given wrong answer to a Physics question based on the old NCERT book. NTA had given grace marks to all of them. NTA had said that in our country children study from the old books of their elder brothers and sisters. Since the information in the old and new NCERT books is different, these children have been given grace marks.

NTA has considered option 1 of the question as correct
NTA had said- According to the old NCERT book, the atoms of every element are stable, whereas in the new NCERT book it is written that the atoms of most elements are stable. Option 1 is correct for this question, that is, the first statement is correct and the second is wrong. Actually, the atoms of radioactive elements are not stable. In such a situation, option 1, that is, the first statement is correct but the second is wrong, will be the correct answer to this question.

44 students got 5 bonus marks, score reached 720/720
Due to this, NTA gave 5 marks to all those students who had marked any of the two statements. A senior NTA official said that due to this, at least 44 students who were scoring 715 were increased by 5 marks to 720.

NCERT books are the standard syllabus for NEET UG: NTA
A senior official from NTA said that these are the standard syllabus NCERT books for the entrance exam, so we have given bonus marks to all those students who had marked option 3. According to the third option, both statements 1 and 2 are correct.

An official associated with NTA has said that in our country, if there is an elder child in the house, then the younger children also study from his books and there is nothing wrong in this. We all have been doing this. We cannot tell the students to buy the latest edition of the book every year for the entrance exam.

The NTA official further said- We will work to ensure that such a situation does not arise again. At present, we have not said anything to NCERT about the difference between the old and new edition of NCERT books for class XII. This year the NEET UG exam has been completed, now NCERT cannot do anything about it.

The number of toppers increased due to change in answer key
An officer associated with NTA also said that the main reason for many students scoring 720 simultaneously was the change in the answer key. However, this year the question paper was also easy compared to previous years and a record number of students had registered for the exam. This has also had a direct impact on the number of toppers.

Change in answer key will not affect reserved seats
NTA has clarified that the change in the answer key will not affect the seats reserved for any category. NTA has said that there will be no change in the number of seats that are already open for the general category or reserved for any other category. The exam was also easier than last year. Due to this, no student will face any problem.

The merit list is prepared with the help of tie-breaker policy: NTA
NTA has also said that 67 students have secured All India Rank 1 but this does not mean that all students will not get admission in AIIMS. We also have a tie-breaker policy for such situations. Students can check how much they have actually scored and where their position is in the merit list. There are also details of subject wise scores in the score card of each student.

After 2019, NEET UG never had more than 3 toppers
Since 2019, no year has seen more than three students top the NEET UG exam. In 2019 and 2020, only one student topped the exam each year, while three students topped in 2021, one student in 2022 and two students in 2023. NEET UG is the only entrance exam for admission to MBBS courses in medical colleges in the country.

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