Cong:'Why Should Students Suffer?'over UGC-NET re-test for 3 papers

The National Testing Agency (NTA) has announced on Sunday a re-examination for three subjects of the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) June 2026 examination after multiple complaints regarding errors in the question papers.The re-test will be conducted for English, Commerce and Sociology, following the findings of a committee constituted by the NTA to investigate complaints received from candidates, according to agency reports.
The UGC-NET examination, conducted in computer-based test (CBT) mode since 2018, determines eligibility for Junior Research Fellowships (JRF), Assistant Professor positions and admission to PhD programmes. The June 2026 examination was held between June 22 and 30 across 87 subjects.In a public notice, the NTA said the committee found numerous errors in the three question papers."The Committee found that the three papers had many factual, typographical, translation errors including misspelt names of prominent scholars, garbled book titles, errors in the stem wording of questions, grammatical errors, gender and number agreement errors, punctuation mistakes, and non-standard coined terms for established concepts, as well as repetition of a significant number of questions previously administered," the NTA said in a press note.

???? UGC-NET June 2026 | Important Notice

NTA had received several complaints about multiple errors in the papers of English, Commerce and Sociology. NTA formed a committee to enquire into and look into these errors and as per the recommendation of the committee, NTA will… pic.twitter.com/oejnlRSe0c

— National Testing Agency (@NTA_Exams) August 16, 2026

The committee subsequently recommended that the examinations be conducted again."In the interest of a fair and error-free examination, the three papers should be re-conducted,"* the statement added.According to the revised schedule, the English and Commerce examinations will be held on September 9, while the Sociology examination will be conducted on September 10. The English paper will take place from 9 a.m. to noon, while the Commerce examination will be conducted from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. The Sociology paper will be held from 9 a.m. to noon on September 10.The NTA clarified that no additional examination fee would be charged from candidates appearing for the re-test. It also said the scale of the errors was such that the issues could not be addressed merely by dropping the affected questions during the answer key challenge process.Meanwhile, the agency released the answer keys for the remaining 84 subjects on Sunday and said the allocation of JRF seats and the issuance of e-certificates for Assistant Professor eligibility and PhD admissions in those subjects would not be delayed because of the re-examination.The NTA also clarified that the top 6 per cent of candidates would remain eligible for Assistant Professor positions and that the re-test would not lead to any reduction in the number of seats.
The announcement, however, triggered sharp criticism from the Congress, which questioned the government's handling of the examination process and demanded accountability for the errors.Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said the NTA had admitted nearly two months after the examination that the three papers contained serious factual, typographical and translation-related errors."Why should students suffer because of the NTA's mistakes?" Ramesh asked.

UGC NET जून 2026 की परीक्षा के करीब दो महीने बाद NTA ने खुद माना कि English, Commerce और Sociology के प्रश्नपत्रों में factual, typographical और translation errors थे। प्रमुख विद्वानों के नाम गलत लिखे गए, किताबों के शीर्षक बिगाड़ दिए गए, प्रश्नों की भाषा में त्रुटियां थीं,…

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) August 17, 2026

He questioned whether it should take nearly two months to identify such significant errors and sought an explanation for the delay in announcing the results."The question isn't just why the exam is being held again. The question is how a question paper with such serious errors was prepared and approved in the first place,"Ramesh said.The youth of the country demands answers," he said, while also questioning whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi would accept responsibility for the lapses.The UGC-NET remains one of the country's most important eligibility examinations, with its results determining access to research fellowships, teaching positions and doctoral programmes at universities across India.