Amid paper leak probe, hybrid model for NEET under consideration: Report

New Delhi: Amid the ongoing controversy and protests following the unprecedented cancellation of the undergraduate medical entrance examination i.e., NEET UG 2026, the Central Government is examining the possibility of implementing a hybrid examination model, Economic Times has reported.

Under this new model, the question papers could be transmitted digitally to the examination centres and printed locally under secure conditions.  According to officials, this model is being considered a safer alternative because conducting a fully online exam for 23 lakh candidates remains difficult due to infrastructure and logistics challenges.

Commenting on the matter, a senior health ministry official told Economic Times that discussions on the possible reforms in the NEET examination are expected in the coming days between the Union Health Ministry, the National Medical Commission (NMC), and the National Testing Agency (NTA). These discussions will include the consideration of whether parts of the UG medical entrance test could be digitised.

Also Read: How did NEET 2026 'leaked paper' circulate? CBI probe finds

Why are the issues with NEET being held as a Computer-Based-Test?

Even though the government-appointed panel had strongly recommended conducting NEET-UG as a computer-based test almost a year ago as a way to tackle paper leaks, there has been development in that direction. 

This stalled condition is due to the infrastructural issue in the NTA and an impossible-to-meet condition of the Union Health Ministry, which had demanded that the UG medical entrance test, if conducted online, for around 2.3 million aspirants must be conducted in a single shift.

Earlier a panel headed by former ISRO Chief R Radhakrishnan, which had been set up after the paper leak controversy in 2024, recommended in its October 2024 report to shift the NEET exam pen-and-paper to a digital mode.

Commenting on this, a member of the said panel told Hindustan Times on the condition of anonymity, "In a high-technology era, continuing indefinitely with pen-and-paper testing is difficult to justify. Printing, transport and physical distribution create multiple leak points. Computer-based testing (CBT) allows algorithm-driven delivery with minimal manual handling and hence can act as a prevention method for paper leaks."

Discussing why this recommendation has not been implemented, NTA Director Abhishek Singh told HT that the agency is ready to move, but only on instruction. He said, "We will conduct the exam in CBT mode if the health ministry gives us in writing that they want us to conduct the exam in CBT mode. It will take around 20 shifts to manage around 2.2 million NEET candidates, and we will have to follow the normalisation process to ensure fairness to all students."

Explaining the infrastructural challenges, an NTA official said, "Around 150,000 students sit for CBT exams in a shift conducted by NTA. We conducted JEE Main 2026 session 1 in nine shifts for over 1.3 million students and session 2 in 10 shifts for over 1 million students. NTA scores are normalised across multi-shift papers based on relative performance within each shift."

Therefore, twenty shifts for 2.3 million NEET candidates would be more than twice what JEE Main required for both its sessions combined. Meanwhile, the Health Ministry is fixed in its position that online examinations will be accepted only in a single shift.

Commenting on this, a senior official said on the condition of anonymity, "When this matter was brought to the health ministry almost three years back, it was already communicated that if the NTA can conduct online examinations in CBT mode in a single shift, then it should do so. We do not want problems later arising from complaints that one set of questions was different from another or that an earlier paper was easier. To rule out issues related to normalisation, the health ministry had suggested conducting the examination in a single shift."

Even though the official acknowledged the huge number of students who appeared in NEET, he stood by the Ministry's position, adding, "This year, around 23 lakh students appeared for the examination, which is a huge number. But India is capable of advancing to that stage."

While the NMC Act 2019 does not mention the requirement of a single shift exam, according to experts, this is due to the possibility that a multi-shift exam format could lead to legal challenge on the grounds that normalisation compromises uniformity. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the Supreme Court, while considering a similar issue in NEET PG examination, had directed the National Board of Examinations to hold the exam in a single shift to avoid the "arbitrariness" arising out of different difficulty level in a multiple shift exam.

Speaking to HT, an official from the education ministry explained that since NTA conducts NEET under the NMC regulations, the ultimate decision will be taken by the Health Ministry. "NTA will conduct the test in the mode it is asked to," added the official.

Meanwhile, the candidates, who appeared in two compromised NEET cycles, are in doubt regarding NTA's capability in handling the exam. Regarding this, an aspirant from Indore said that the issue is not with the technology, but NTA itself. She added, "Online exams may reduce leak chances, but we are still not fully assured that it will prevent paper leaks given the NTA’s record in handling NEET exam."

Hybrid Model under Consideration:

Amid this, the Union Health Ministry is considering conducting the exam in a hybrid mode. As per the officials, the proposed “computer-assisted secure paper-based test”, recommended by the Radhakrishnan Committee, is emerging as a possible middle path between completely online and fully computer-based examinations.

The panel has proposed a nationwide network of 400–500 standardised testing centres within a year, capable of accommodating 200,000–250,000 candidates per session and eventually expanding to every district headquarters. This could reduce shifts gradually and bring the single-shift aspiration within reach.

As per the latest media report by Economic Times, under this proposal, encrypted question papers would be sent to confidential servers at exam centres or regional hubs shortly before the test and then they would be printed locally using high-speed secure printers.

Commenting on this, an official said, "The idea is to reduce manual handling points during transportation and storage of question papers, which are considered vulnerable stages." The official explained that printing the exam papers closer to the examination time could reduce the risks of the questions being leaked.

The officials have opined that the hybrid system could retain the advantages of a single-day, single-paper offline examination. It could also avoid controversies over normalisation method and different difficulty levels of papers across multiple shifts. Further, this model could continue allowing a large number of centres, including the centres in smaller towns and rural areas, to host the test.

Explaining that shifting NEET to a fully online exam was difficult due to the massive number of aspirants appearing in it and the complications linked to multiple-shift testing, another official said, "India currently lacks infrastructure to conduct a single-day computer-based exam for nearly 25 lakh students. At best, only 1 to 1.5 lakh candidates can be accommodated daily. Multiple shifts would bring into play issues of normalisation, fairness and comparisons across sessions."

The official further added that many NEET aspirants, belonging to smaller towns and rural areas, may not be properly familiar with the CBT testing method. Further, holding the exam online would require specialised centres, stable internet, uninterrupted electricity and technical manpower as opposed to the offline exams conducted in schools across districts.

Therefore, the officials opined that a fully online system could result in a reduced number of centres and ultimately force many students to travel to larger cities to appear in it. Other issues such as cyber-security risks, server failures and technical disruptions are also matters to be considered. They said that any transition would require months of preparation, including infrastructure expansion, mock tests and familiarising the students with the process.

However, in the case of hybrid system also pilot testing, infrastructure assessment and detailed operational protocols would be required before implementation. 

"These are still discussions and nothing has been finalised yet. But after repeated controversies in recent years, there is broad agreement that reforms are needed," said an official.

Also Read: CBI NEET 2026 paper leak probe: Aspirants allegedly paid Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh for access, say sources