Decoding Error by NBE in DNB exam: Here's what Health Minister said in Parliament
DNB Exam
New Delhi: The issue of the alleged paper mix-up in the DNB 2021 exam was raised in Parliament recently. When asked about the Diplomate of National Board (DNB) Orthopedics final theory exam and the alleged paper mix-up, the Union Minister of State for Health, Smt. Anupriya Patel informed the Parliament about the matter and stated that a decoding error had occurred in Paper IV for a group of 48 candidates.
Further, the Minister informed that when the issue of decoding error was placed before the Examination Committee of NBEMS, an inquiry was conducted into the matter. Consequently, a sub-committee, comprising of three officers, was formed to verify the corrected results of the 48 candidates and it was found later that the results of all candidates were accurate.
In the matter, it was alleged that the answer sheets of at least 48 students had been mixed up in one of the four exams conducted in March 2021, and NBE, in charge of conducting the exam, had allegedly termed it as a "decoding error".
The issue came to light when one of the candidates who had failed in the exam results declared on July 30, 2021, filed a request for a photocopy of his answer sheet in August 2021 and two months later, when he got back his answer sheets, he discovered that copy of the answer sheet of paper IV belonged to another candidate.
NBE finally admitted the mix-up after much delay and back-and-forth correspondence. The doctor got to know that the mix-up had happened for 47 other candidates as well, and ultimately on November 24, NBE declared revised results.
Medical Dialogues had also reported how the result summary of DNB/DrNB final theory exam had shocked the medical fraternity as it had been revealed that less than 20 per cent of aspirants had cleared the exam in specialities including Nephrology, and Orthopaedics. The pass percentage in specialities such as Hospital Administration, Otorhinolaryngology, Paediatrics, Pathology, Surgical Oncology, and Emergency Medicine was also not so good as less than 40 percent of the total candidates had cleared the exam in 2021.
Recently, in the Lok Sabha, Dr. Bachhav Shobha Dinesh had asked whether the papers of 48 candidates in the paper IV of Orthopaedics of Diplomate of National Board (DNB) exam conducted in March 2021 were mixed and whether there was an inquiry conducted to investigate the 'mix-up' of papers as claimed by NBEMS.
Dr. Dinesh also sought the details of the names of members along with the names of members constituting the enquiring committee, timeline and frequency of meetings of enquiring committee, minutes of the meetings, report(s) produced by the committee. He also sought to know whether there was a court case regarding the same and whether NBEMS has introduced any safeguards to prevent such recurrence of such incidents.
In response, MoS Health informed, "As per information provided by National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences (NBEMS), during the December 2020 session of the DNB Orthopedics final theory exam, a candidate identified a decoding error which was subsequently reviewed by NBEMS and it was found that a decoding error had occurred in Paper IV for a group of 48 candidates. Following the investigation, NBEMS released the corrected results for all 48 candidates. The issue of the decoding error was placed before the Examination Committee of NBEMS and an inquiry was conducted into the matter. A sub-committee, comprising three officers, was also formed to verify the corrected results of the 48 candidates and it was found that the results of all candidates were accurate."
She further added that "As informed by NBEMS, a case has been filed before the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi and the matter is sub-judice."
Commenting on the measures taken by NBE to prevent such recurrence, Smt Patel added, "NBEMS has introduced the decoding process of DNB/DrNB final examination result wherein the answer sheets are decoded, verified and saved in a password-protected MS Excel file before being sent for further verification."
