Garhwal Post Bureau
Dehradun, 2 Jul: General Secretary of the Association for English Studies of India (AESI), the country’s oldest association of English teachers, Prof Vikas Sharma has urged the Union Ministry of Education to review the UGC NET English examination conducted in June 2026 and issue a clearly defined syllabus for future examinations, contending that the existing framework has created widespread uncertainty among aspirants. Professor Vikas Sharma, General Secretary of AESI, is a noted academic, author and the brother of well-known Hindi poet Kumar Vishwas.
In his representation submitted to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Sharma has made it clear that he is writing on behalf of candidates who appeared for the UGC NET English examination conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA). He has shared that thousands of aspirants across the country have expressed serious concerns over the nature of the question paper. He observed that several questions in the NET examination appeared to deviate significantly from the established pattern of the UGC NET examination and included content that was ambiguous, excessively obscure or beyond the recognised academic domain of English Literature traditionally covered under the UGC curriculum.
The representation also cites examples of questions requiring candidates to arrange sentences from a particular author’s book in their original order or identify exact quotations by authors such as JS Mill. Sharma also claimed that the candidates were also asked about unfamiliar authors and their works in chronological order, making it unreasonable to expect students to possess exhaustive knowledge of literary works produced across the world.
Sharma argued that the principal problem lay in the undefined and unspecified syllabus of UGC NET English, which, according to him, had left thousands of students confused, demotivated and uncertain about their academic future. He maintained that a national-level examination determining eligibility for Assistant Professorships and Junior Research Fellowships must uphold transparency, predictability and academic consistency.
Sharma has requested an official review of the UGC NET English examination conducted on 25 June 2026 to assess its suitability for selecting the future scholars and Assistant Professors. He also sought publication of a specific and updated syllabus, accompanied by detailed explanatory guidelines, reference frameworks and sample papers to enable candidates to prepare effectively. The representation further called for greater academic oversight and accountability in the paper-setting process to ensure fairness and equal opportunity for all aspirants.
The letter also refers to certain media reports concerning the UGC NET English examination of June 2025, which alleged that 67 out of 150 questions in Paper II had been repeated from the 2024 examination, with even the sequence of answer options reportedly remaining unchanged. If those reports are accurate, they point towards serious lapses in the paper-setting process and raised questions about the originality, academic integrity and fairness of the examination. He urged the Ministry and the UGC to institute an independent inquiry into the matter and take corrective measures to restore the confidence of students in the national examination system.
Stating that the UGC NET examination plays a decisive role in shaping the academic careers of thousands of students, Sharma has appealed to the Ministry of Education to intervene in the interest of justice, transparency and academic integrity and ensure that the examination process remains fair and equitable for all the candidates.
