The National Testing Agency (NTA) is undergoing a significant restructuring following recent scandals involving paper leaks and errors in high-stakes examinations. On Tuesday, the Union education ministry announced that the NTA has dismissed 600 subject experts as part of this overhaul. Additionally, the agency is implementing a four-tier system for checking question papers to enhance security and reliability. The NTA will also relocate its headquarters from Okhla in south Delhi to a more central location in the city. These changes come in response to the impact of examination mishaps that have affected millions of students over the past two years.
Union education minister Pralhad Joshi held meetings with NTA director general Abhishek Singh and senior ministry officials on Monday and Tuesday, after NTA announced on Sunday that it would re-conduct three UGC-NET subjects — which was the latest in a series of problems. In a post on X on Tuesday, the ministry said Joshi had directed that all necessary security and infrastructure facilities be put in place for the smooth conduct of examinations, and that NTA officials had briefed him on steps taken to strengthen the system. NTA itself has not publicly detailed the changes. The scale of the removal is difficult to benchmark. NTA has not publicly disclosed the current size of its subject-expert pool.
In a communication to the ministry in March 2021, the agency said around 7,000 subject experts had been oriented on test-development practices through workshops, but did not state that all of them constituted its active expert panel. Another 20 to 25 officials will be inducted over the next two to three weeks, the ministry said.
The measures were disclosed a day after the ministry directed NTA to “fix accountability”, conduct a thorough audit of its examination processes and submit a report on corrective action within 30 days. “A revamp of the examination team was undertaken with 600 experts being removed and new experts being onboarded,” the ministry said. The ministry said the four-tier system would “strengthen scrutiny of examination papers”.
