Mired in controversy, the National Testing Agency (NTA) is grappling with allegations of question paper leaks and irregularities in the conduct of some of the country’s largest and high-stakes entrance exams, including the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medical aspirants.
Constituted in 2017 by the BJP government to conduct entrance examination admissions to higher education institutions, the testing agency is an autonomous body under the Department of Higher Education in the Union Ministry of Education.
What is it that has troubled the NTA? Insiders say it is the lack of a robust process and mechanism to handle such large examinations where more than 20 lakh students sit for an exam in a single day. “This is what the high-level panel aims to address,” an official told News18.
The NTA is facing allegations of irregularities in the conduct of the NEET-UG 2024, for which 24 lakh candidates had registered. Arrests have been made in Bihar where accused have detailed how they received the question paper on the eve of the exam.
Then there is the cancellation of the University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) due to paper leak on the darknet. Around 9 lakh students had taken the exam.
Days later came the postponement of the CSIR-UGC-NET (conducted for fellowship in sciences and industrial research in universities), which affects over 2 lakh students.
Last week, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, acknowledging the issue, announced the setting up of a seven-member high-level panel led by former ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan to review the functioning of the NTA. The panel is likely to hold its first meeting on Monday, said officials.
What’s Wrong with the NTA
When it was first set up, the NTA was only meant to conduct computer-based tests like the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for admission to engineering colleges as well as University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET), which until this year used to be conducted online. The NTA would partner with a technical service provider to conduct the online exams, which have been foolproof.
This year, the UGC shifted the mode of examination to OMR (pen-and-paper optical mark recognition) mode, in which around 9 lakh students appeared in two shifts in a single day.
“Conducting large national-level exams such as these in the pen-and-paper mode requires huge manpower and various levels of human interference starting from setting the question paper to printing and transporting it to different centres, allowing the exam to be exposed to gaps at every stage,” said an official formerly associated with the NTA.
The UGC had earlier said that it shifted the exam from online mode to pen-and-paper mode to be able to conduct the exam across centres in a single day. This is the first time in 34 years that UGC-NET exam was leaked and then cancelled.
Several officials also pointed out that bringing the NEET-UG under the NTA was not the right move to begin with. NEET-UG came under the NTA in 2019 after the approval of the Union Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education.
“NEET-UG is India’s largest exam, which the health ministry has so far insisted on conducting in the pen-and-paper mode. Shifting the conduct of such a large-scale exam to the testing agency, which is handling a slew of other national and state level exams in itself was not the right thing to do. It can still be reversed,” said an official formerly with the Department of Higher Education.
To conduct such a high-stakes exam, a separate body is needed with specific protocols just as in the case of the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC), the official added.
Now, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing both the NEET and NET paper leak cases after the Bihar Economic Offences Unit (EOU) submitted its report to the Centre.
High-Level Panel to Fix the Process
“A high-level panel that has members from various universities is set to meet on Monday. It is supposed to discuss laying down of security protocols at each stage, including establishing a robust procedure for conduct of any exam by the NTA. This also includes rules of evaluation and setting of the question paper to its printing and distribution,” said an official familiar with the panel.
The committee will also look at data security protocols used in the conduct of exams like JEE-Advanced, which is held in the computer mode.
“The panel is to discuss strengthening of the second and third-rung leadership levels, assigning responsibility and fixing accountability at each level, which was likely amiss so far,” the official added.
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