New Delhi, Aug 17: The CPI(M) demanded on Monday that the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, be scrapped, saying errors in three UGC-NET papers have once again exposed the “entrenched rot” in the country’s education system.
In a statement issued here, the party’s Politburo said the latest errors have exposed the NTA’s “abject incompetence” in conducting examinations and reiterated its demand for scrapping the agency as well as the NEP, which it described as the “root cause of the decay in the education system”.
“This disgraceful episode has once again exposed the entrenched rot in India’s education system and lays bare the NTA’s abject incompetence to hold these examinations,” the CPI(M) said.
The party alleged that instead of addressing the consequences of the NEP, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its affiliates are targeting those who question the education system.
“Deplorably, instead of remedying the NEP’s disastrous consequences, the BJP and its affiliates target those who question the system,” it said, while condemning the killing of Janab Mafik, father of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) volunteer Shaik Abdul Hafeez, in West Bengal. Mafik died after he was allegedly assaulted at his residence after his son visited a school to record infrastructural gaps.
The NTA on Sunday announced a retest for three papers — English, Commerce and Sociology — of the UGC-NET that was held in June following complaints of several errors in these papers.
The English paper will be held from 9 am to 12 noon on September 9, while the Commerce paper will be conducted the same day from 3 pm to 6 pm.
The Sociology re-test will be held from 9 am to 12 noon on September 10.
The NTA conducted the UGC-NET 2026 from June 22 to June 30 across 87 subjects for the award of Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), eligibility for assistant professor and admission to PhD programmes.
In a public notice, the agency said it had received several complaints about multiple errors in the question papers of the three subjects and formed a committee to look into these issues.
