Students' group, subject experts suggest reforms in JEE, NEET, CUET exams to Nilekani-led task force

The students’ group, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), has suggested several reforms for national-level competitive exams such as NEET and JEE to the NTA’s Nandan Nilekani-led high-powered task force, constituted by the government of India.

ABVP has called for competitive exams to be made more transparent, secure, and student-friendly after consulting students and experts from Nagpur, Bhopal, Delhi, Chandigarh, and South Bihar.

Furthermore, a Delhi-based educationist has also submitted a ‘national blueprint’ to fix NEET, JEE and CUET exams to the task force.

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ABVP’s recommendations on exam reforms

Based on consultations with students and subject experts, the students’ group had prepared recommendations covering immediate, medium-term, and long-term reforms in the exam system.

A key recommendation is to conduct competitive examinations in two stages, the first for shortlisting candidates and the second for final selection. It has also suggested that NEET should be held twice a year.

Other recommendations include use of CBT in exams, stronger question-paper security, uniform standards for exam centres, robust candidate verification and data protection, transparent systems for answer keys, normalisation and tie-breaking, and clear protocols for technical or administrative failures, including re-exam when required.

Furthermore, for long-term reform, ABVP has called for coordination between curriculum, teaching, assessment and entrance examinations, improved institutional learning to reduce dependence on coaching, career counselling, competency-based assessment and phased implementation of major reforms through pilot projects, reviews and independent audits.

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‘CBT is the future,’ says NTA DG

The National Testing Agency (NTA) DG Abhishek Singh has said that Nilekani-led high-powered task force is working to make the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) in CBT mode. He further added that CBT requires testing infrastructure, and building up safeguards.

“So CBT is the future, so all our examinations will be CBT in the days to come," NTA DG said while talking to ANI .

Earlier, the former education minister announced that NEET 2027 will be held in CBT mode to curb paper leaks after the NEET 2026 paper was leaked and a re-exam was conducted for MBBS aspirants.

Subject expert recommendations

Keshav Agarwal, the president of the educators federation of India (EFI), a New Delhi-based educationist, had recommended reforms to the Nilekani-led high-powered task force .

These include adopting a ‘fair repeat-candidate policy ', a ‘rational syllabus for JEE and NEET', and a separate independent committee to look into overall exam operations other than day-to-day requirements

Agarwal has suggested three ready-to-pilot delivery models for question papers – secure isolation and encrypted printing, a 30-minute encrypted window for any paper, and 2 tier exams, prelims-and-mains structure.