Why a Federal Model and Not Computer-Based Test May Fix NEET
Arun Kumar PK | 18 June 2026 | The Wire
The announcement that National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test-UG (NEET-UG) will shift to a computer-based testing (CBT) format following the 2026 question paper leak reflects a recurring pattern in Indian policy: when a system fails visibly, the response is to upgrade its machinery rather than question its architecture. Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan‘s framing of the crisis as primarily a problem of implementation – of insufficient digitalisation and inadequate centralisation – mistakes a symptom for the disease.
The more important question is not how the paper leaked, but why leaking it was worth the risk at all. That answer does not lie in the delivery mechanism. It lies in what the exam has become: a single, absolute determinant of an entire generation’s medical futures…