Student Groups Protest UGC-NET Re-Exam, Demand NTA Accountability

Several student organisations staged protests in the national capital on Monday against the National Testing Agency's (NTA) decision to conduct fresh UGC-NET examinations for three subjects, demanding that the agency be scrapped over what they called its "repeated lapses".

The protests came amid continuing criticism of the NTA over examination-related irregularities. The agency has ordered fresh examinations for candidates who appeared for the English, Commerce and Sociology papers in June after an expert committee found factual, typographical, translation and language-related errors in the question papers.

Students Take Protest To NTA Doorstep

The All India Students' Association (AISA) demonstrated at the NTA headquarters at Okhla Industrial Estate, demanding the complete abolition of the testing agency. It alleged that the cancellation of the three papers was another instance of systemic mismanagement and lack of accountability, PTI reports.

The Students' Federation of India (SFI) also protested at the NTA office in Okhla and called for nationwide demonstrations against the agency.

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), expressed concern over the re-examination, saying serious errors in a national-level examination raised questions about the credibility of the examination process.

ABVP National General Secretary Virendra Singh Solanki said students should not have to "pay the price" for the NTA's lapses and demanded accountability at every stage of question-paper preparation and examination management.

"Serious errors in a national-level examination like UGC-NET are deeply concerning. Students should not have to pay the price for NTA's lapses," Solanki said.

The ABVP said it had earlier raised concerns over the delay in releasing the provisional answer key. It called for stronger question-paper preparation processes involving expert review, translation, proofreading and final quality checks.

Repeated Errors Put NTA Under Fire

Last month, a Cockroach Janta Party-led student agitation over the NEET paper leak issue led to the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as Union Education Minister and a major revamp of the NTA.

AISA, which is affiliated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, alleged that police detained protesters when students and youth gathered at the NTA headquarters.

"We strongly condemn the brutal detention of protesting students," AISA said, alleging that the police action was a continuation of the repression witnessed during earlier student movements over examination irregularities.

There was no immediate response from the police.

AISA said the latest controversy surrounding the June 2026 UGC-NET examination was another example of what it described as a crisis created by the NTA model. It alleged that reports had emerged of irregularities in the Sociology paper, including the circulation of a PDF purportedly containing questions and answers from within the NTA system.

The organisation also raised concerns about the English paper, alleging that a majority of its questions were reproduced from the 2024 examination.

Fresh Exams Add To Students' Burden

The NTA released the UGC-NET answer key on Aug 16, nearly two months after the examination, along with a special notice concerning the Sociology, Commerce and English papers.

Later that day, the agency announced that fresh examinations for the three subjects would be held in September, citing factual, typographical, translation and grammatical errors.

The re-examinations are scheduled for Sep 9 and 10. Candidates will not have to pay an additional examination fee.

AISA said the decision had compounded students' problems, with delayed NET results already affecting PhD admissions across universities. It said candidates were now being forced to prepare for fresh examinations with limited preparation time.

The controversy has therefore moved beyond errors in individual question papers. With several student organisations questioning the examination process, the protests have put the focus on accountability and the cost that repeated examination failures impose on candidates.

SFI, KYS Demand Structural Change

The Delhi state committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-affiliated SFI also alleged that the NTA's latest decision had exposed its failure to conduct fair and error-free examinations.

It said the expert committee had found issues including misspelt scholars' names, garbled book titles, grammatical errors, flawed question wording and repetition of previously administered questions.

"Students' futures cannot continue to be treated as collateral damage," the SFI said, demanding that the NTA be scrapped and replaced with a transparent and accountable examination system.

The organisation also demanded a judicial inquiry into the agency's repeated examination failures and the circumstances surrounding the defective UGC-NET papers. It said every defective or re-conducted examination resulted in students losing months of preparation, time and money, besides disrupting admissions and career plans.

The Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS) also staged a protest at the Union Education Ministry against the cancellation of the three UGC-NET papers and demanded the immediate disbanding of the NTA.

KYS alleged that police manhandled and detained protesting students and youth, including women activists, during the demonstration.

Calls Grow For Examination Overhaul

The student groups said the issue went beyond the UGC-NET re-examination and required structural changes in the country's examination system.

AISA, SFI and KYS demanded an end to what they described as the privatisation of public examinations and called for a transparent, publicly controlled examination system.

The breadth of the protests, involving student organisations with different affiliations, underlines the larger concern surrounding the credibility of high-stakes examinations. Their demands may differ in emphasis, but the central question raised by the protests is the same: who should be held accountable when errors in an examination disrupt students' admissions, preparation and career plans?