‘Mess in Education’: Ex-civil servants call for Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation over NEET, CBSE OSM failures

Adding to the growing controversy surrounding the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET UG) 2026 paper leak and the failure of the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) OSM evaluation system, the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), a former civil servants group has demanded the resignation of the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Expressing their disappointment over the “repeated” failures of the education ministry in conducting the national level examinations, the ex civil servant groups said that the systemic collapses have “shattered the dreams and futures of millions of young Indians.”

Amid the mounting protests by various groups, including parents, students and opposition parties over alleged irregularities in the competitive examination and the functioning of the NTA, the IAS, IPS group has written an open letter, demanding the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan.

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'Every year, same flaws in NEET'

Citing the recent NEET UG paper leak controversy which “undermined” the aspirations of nearly 22.79 lakh MBBS aspirants, CCG stated: “We are amazed that, every year, for several years, the same kind of flaws continue to occur in the NEET examination that some candidates gain prior access to the exam paper through paper leaks, obviously as a result of bribes and chicanery.”

The former civil servants, in the open letter, also mentioned that the introduction of the new On Screen Marking (OSM) digital evaluation for the CBSE Class 12 exams was filled with frequent portal crashes, missing digital pages, mismatched answer sheets and abrupt marking, especially in the core STEM subjects.

As a result, the failure of the OSM system put pressure on the regional board and led to panic amongst students and their families, the letter read.

“Some enterprising students, aided by ethical hackers, discovered major flaws in the online systems, including serious flaws in security. Their further investigation revealed that the company entrusted with implementing the system had, in an earlier corporate avatar, been blacklisted by the Telangana government in 2019,” the group said in the letter.

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CCG urges PM Modi to relieve Pradhan from charge

It further stated that the government also ignored the feedback in the limited beta testing along with the suggestions to roll out the OSM system. However, after these major flaws came to public notice, the government transferred the CBSE chairman and secretary, a case of too little too late, it added.

Therefore, CCG has demanded in their open letter that Dharmendra Pradhan should resign from his post, owning the responsibility for the “current mess” in the education ministry.

They have also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to relieve Pradhan from his charge. Moreover, the group has also sought an independent judicial inquiry of the NTA and the CBSE evaluation methods.

Highlighting that the future of the nation depends on the fairness, transparency and integrity of its education system, the group said: “Strict, state of the art security and cryptographic protocols against question paper leaks and rigorous, third-party audits of all digital evaluation software be implemented before national rollouts.”