UGC-NET – Congress Questions NTA Over Reported Errors in Exam Papers

UGC-NET – The Congress on Thursday criticised the Union government over reports of errors in the UGC-NET Sociology paper and claims that a large number of questions in the English examination had appeared earlier in a previous test. The party said the allegations had raised serious concerns about the National Testing Agency’s ability to conduct major examinations with consistency and credibility.

Congress cites re-NEET arrangements

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh referred to the re-NEET examination held on June 21, 2026, saying the government had relied on extensive administrative arrangements to ensure that the test was conducted smoothly.

In a post on X, Ramesh said the exercise involved support from the armed forces and government agencies at several levels. He argued that such large-scale deployment reflected the government’s inability to conduct important examinations without extraordinary intervention.

The Congress leader said the issue was not limited to one examination and alleged that the NTA’s functioning had remained under scrutiny despite earlier assurances of reforms.

Questions raised over UGC-NET papers

Ramesh also shared media reports concerning the UGC-NET examinations and claimed that questions in the English paper had been reproduced from earlier papers without meaningful changes. He further pointed to complaints about spelling, translation and grammatical mistakes in the Sociology paper.

He said these reported shortcomings had affected confidence among students preparing for national-level eligibility tests. Ramesh also targeted Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, alleging that the promised strengthening of the examination system had not been achieved.

The government and the Education Ministry had not issued an immediate response to the Congress leader’s remarks at the time of the reports.

Candidates report mistakes in Sociology test

Several candidates who took the UGC-NET Sociology examination on June 30 said they found errors in multiple questions. According to their accounts, the paper included spelling mistakes, weak sentence construction and questions that were not framed clearly.

Students also alleged that the names of prominent sociologists and scholars were incorrectly written in the question paper. Among the reported examples were “Putzer” in place of Ritzer, “Parsow” instead of Parsons, “Ghunye” for Ghurye, “A K Desai” rather than A R Desai, and “Nusbaut” in place of Nussbaum.

Candidates said such mistakes could create confusion during an examination that plays an important role in academic careers. They called for the matter to be examined and for authorities to clarify whether any corrective measures would be taken.

English paper repetition claim adds to concerns

In a separate allegation, one candidate said that 67 out of 150 questions in the UGC-NET English paper were the same as questions asked in the 2024 examination. The candidate further claimed that the order of the answer choices had also remained unchanged in several cases.

The allegation has renewed debate over the preparation and review process followed for national examination papers. Repetition of questions is not necessarily prohibited in every examination setting, but candidates said the reported scale of overlap required an explanation from the testing agency.

The NTA had not publicly responded to the allegations regarding the Sociology and English papers when the concerns were reported.

Importance of the UGC-NET examination

UGC-NET is conducted to assess eligibility for Assistant Professor positions and admission to PhD programmes in Indian universities and colleges. The examination has two components: Paper I evaluates teaching aptitude, reasoning skills and general awareness, while Paper II includes 100 multiple-choice questions from the candidate’s chosen subject.

With thousands of students depending on the examination for academic opportunities, candidates and opposition leaders have called for greater transparency in the preparation, verification and conduct of UGC-NET papers.