NEET-UG Row: NTA in the eye of a storm

Set up in 2017, the NTA boasts of being an “independent, autonomous, and self-sustained premier testing organization.” But how private is this body really?
Protests against NTA's credibility.
Protests against NTA's credibility.(Photo | PTI)
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NEW DELHI: Amid the NEET-UG exam debacle, the National Testing Agency (NTA) is in the hot seat. This so-called independent body, which handles top exams like JEE, NEET-UG, UGC-NET, and CMAT, is actually a society under the Societies Registration Act of 1860. It runs 15 fiercely competitive entrance exams for higher education admissions.

Set up in 2017 and registered as a society on May 15, 2018, after the Cabinet’s approval on November 10, 2017, the NTA boasts of being an “independent, autonomous, and self-sustained premier testing organization.” But how private is this body really?

The idea behind setting up NTA was to overcome shortcomings in state-level exam-conducting bodies and to streamline the examination system.

Though the NTA is an autonomous body under the Education Ministry, it does not report its everyday functions to the ministry. However, the central government decides who will head the body and provides funds.

The NTA is overall in charge of preparing the examination papers, distributing them, and marking them.

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The September 2018 order from the Indian government clearly states NTA would “adopt technology and the best global practices to bring in high reliability, transparency, and standardized difficulty levels for assessing the aptitude, intelligence, and problem-solving abilities of the students."But has it served the motto it was set up for?

The first time controversy hit the testing body was in 2021 when the CBI apprehended a Russian hacker believed to be the mastermind behind the 2020 JEE Mains paper leak case.

According to K. C. Kaushik, Advocate, Supreme Court of India, and Former Additional Solicitor General of India, the Indian government registered the NTA under the Societies Registration Act to ensure its independence, akin to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

The government registers various bodies depending on their intent and purpose. “It is up to the government to select the act under which companies can function. For example, oil companies are registered under the Companies Act. The government can pick the registration act that fits the structure of the company or body. In this case, NTA was registered under the Societies Registration Act. However, daily operations hinge on the management setup,” Kaushik told this paper.

The NTA is headed by Prof. Pradeep Kumar Joshi, former Chairman, UPSC, who has been at the helm since 2023. Since its inception, Vineet Joshi was the first Director-General heading this “self-sustained testing organization to conduct entrance examinations for admission in higher educational institutions.” After him, Subodh Kumar Singh took over. But following the NEET-UG controversy, he was replaced by Pradeep Singh Kharola.

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Subodh Kumar Singh  was serving as the additional secretary in the Department of Food and Public Distribution under the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

Its governing body includes two NIT Directors, two IIM Directors, the Director of IISER Pune, the Vice Chancellor of JNU, the Vice Chancellor of IGNOU, and the Chairman of NAAC, Bengaluru.

The NTA's website insists it doesn’t engage with the public daily, except through the Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System.

The NTA was designed to be self-sufficient, unlike entities like UPSC, which were established through Acts of Parliament. It lacks a general body and isn't bound by the same rules as government employees, yet it falls under the Right to Information Act (RTI).

Before the NTA was set up, exams were managed by bodies like the University Grants Commission (UGC), Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), and universities like Delhi University and JNU. CBSE handled UGC-NET and NEET exams until 2018.

It has been seven years since NTA was formed. Despite reports of paper leaks, malpractice, and lack of manpower over the years, it is only now that the government felt the need to reform the testing agency and that too when it faced the ire of students, parents, educationists, and the opposition over its functioning.

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