For the second time in three years, India’s nodal testing agency, the National Testing Agency (NTA), has failed a crucial test of conducting examinations at scale. The latest controversy surrounding the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) has added to students’ stress, angered parents, embarrassed the government and revived demands for the agency’s restructuring. Leaked question papers for the medical entrance examination conducted by the NTA drew charges of systemic failure and poor gatekeeping. It all happened despite hi-tech safeguards such as GPS tracking, AI-assisted CCTV and biometric verification. The ongoing CBI probe has reportedly traced the organised cheating racket to the NTA’s doorstep, as some of its subject matter experts who drafted the question papers couldn’t resist the lure of easy money to facilitate cheating. Their shocking lack of moral compass and integrity was completely at odds with the values their profession is meant to represent.
The education ministry responded swiftly by announcing a retest on June 21 and a full refund of examination fees. It also accepted another long-standing demand: transitioning NEET-UG to a digital format from next year, rather than the existing pen-and-paper system. The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE-Main) for engineering admissions is already computer-based, though it serves a smaller pool of candidates—around 13 lakh, compared to nearly 23 lakh for NEET-UG. The scale of NEET-UG has long posed logistical challenges, which partly explains the health ministry’s resistance to a computer-based format since 2018. Conducting the exam digitally may now require staggered testing over several days rather than a single nationwide session. Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan acknowledged that the optical mark recognition-based system lay at the heart of the current fraud, making the shift to computer-based testing appear both necessary and overdue.
The government’s urgency is understandable given the growing public outrage over repeated examination lapses. Calls for a broader overhaul of the NTA have consequently intensified. Though an autonomous body under the education ministry, the NTA remains outside the ambit of CAG audits and direct parliamentary scrutiny. A recent petition before the Supreme Court has sought the creation of a statutory NTA through parliamentary legislation with clearly defined powers, accountability mechanisms and transparency safeguards. The demand deserves serious consideration, especially at a time when public trust in the country’s examination system stands severely eroded.