NEET-UG to shift to Computer-Based test mode from 2027, says Dharmendra Pradhan; experts welcome move

The NEET-UG 2026 examination, held on May 3, was cancelled following allegations of a paper leak that triggered nationwide outrage and protests.

Addressing a press conference at his residence, Pradhan said the shift to CBT was necessary despite the implementation of recommendations made by the Radhakrishnan Committee.

“Despite implementation of the Radhakrishnan Committee’s recommendations, this incident occurred. The root cause is the Optical Mark Recognition (OMR)-based examination system. From next year, NEET will be conducted in Computer-Based Test mode,” Pradhan said.

Re-exam Date Announced

The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Friday announced a fresh date for the re-examination, ending days of uncertainty for lakhs of aspirants.

The re-examination will be held on June 21, 2026 (Sunday), with the agency stating that the date was finalised with the approval of the Government of India.

Protests Erupt Nationwide

The cancellation of NEET-UG sparked protests across several parts of India after allegations of paper leaks, irregularities, and unfair evaluation practices surfaced.

Students and opposition parties accused authorities of failing to ensure transparency and fairness in one of India’s most competitive entrance exams.

Demonstrators demanded a fresh examination, accountability from the NTA, and urgent reforms to restore trust in the system.

Expert reaction:

Welcoming the decision, Chocko Valliappa, founder of HireMEE and managing director of Vee Technologies said: "The decision of NTA to move high-stakes NEET exam to Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode from 2027, announced by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is welcome."

"CBT-based admission (and assessment) tests have been conducted globally, by companies like Prometric and Pearson Vue, for decades. IIMs too moved to a CBT exam over 15 years ago," he said.

"Indian organizations such as Meta-i Technologies have been delivering CBT-based assessments for several years,"  Chocko Valliappa said.

"I am glad that NEET finally saw very little merit in the argument that students from remote schools lack access to, or familiarity with, computers. Today, even students in remote villages routinely use smartphones with digital access improving significantly," he said.

He said Indian start up HireMee has been conducting AI-proctored assessments on even Rs 5,000 smartphones since 2019.

"Conceptually, NTA would primarily need to build a large and robust question bank hosted on highly secure servers. Scientifically randomised and difficulty-validated question sets could then be delivered across nearly 5,500 test centres directly onto candidates’ mobile devices. HireMee has a AI platform to generate questions," he said.

"To cater to candidates with no familiarity with computers in a few hundred remote location the tests can be held on a mobile device, AI proctoring in a classroom/test centre duly proctored by a human to provide multilevel security, and assistance for downloading. HireMee can build safeguards that the questions cannot be forwarded to anyone," he said.

He said platforms such as HireMee provide several layers of security (windows proctoring, image proctoring, live proctoring, question & answer randomisation, etc.), which, along with human proctoring, could be an alternate solution and an effective hybrid model.

"The future could be a combination of CBT and/or IBT to deal with potential challenges and scale," he said.