AA Edit | For NTA Reset, Check Report of 2024 Panel

The Union government’s two major decisions after this year’s NEET paper leak controversy, one to form a panel of experts to revamp the National Testing Agency and the other to tighten the law to curb question paper leaks, must be seen as an admission that all is not ship-shape with the system and a lot needs to be done to get it there. They also appear to be ad hoc measures as they are very nearly a repeat of the actions taken by the government a couple of years ago following a similar controversy. What is required is ground-level action which the government has showed little inclination to take.

The NTA is responsible for holding entrance examinations for admissions to most higher educational institutions in the country. However, it is an agency with no statutory backing, no institutional mechanism and no structural integrity. The K. Radhakrishnan committee which looked into the functioning of the NTA after the leakage of the UGC-NET examination question papers in 2024 had made a 101-point report that called for initiating examination reforms, strengthening of the data security and restructuring of the NTA. Two years down the line, the recommendations of the report, “The Reformation of National Common Entrance Testing in India”, remain on paper and the agency functions much the same way, making very similar or bigger mistakes.

One of the key suggestions of the committee was to bring structural integrity to the NTA by hiring more permanent, domain-specific staff. It also called for reducing dependence on contract staff and instead creating specialised verticals for test development and examination administration. It was suggested that ministries, universities and other agencies conducting examinations be co-opted as knowledge partners. Pretty little has changed between then and now and the organisation still runs with no permanent staff. Its data analysis and other key operations are outsourced. Its day-to-day affairs are managed by staff on deputation.

It may be recalled that unlike on earlier occasions when question paper leaks happened in remote areas where local criminals in cahoots with local agents would manage to leak the question papers and sell them for a price, this time a question paper setter is the prime accused. This shows the NTA’s system is much compromised. The responsibility for the non-implementation of the recommendations, leading to a worse question paper leak which led to the suicide of 23 Neet aspirants, must be laid squarely on the table of Dharmendra Pradhan who held the education portfolio in this period.

The government has introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha to tighten the law against question paper leaks. It calls for time-bound investigation and trial and higher sentences for proven culpability. The government is under the impression that higher penalty will deter the operators but the experience as of now offers no compelling reason to come to such a conclusion.

It is not that India has no institutions which conduct high-profile examinations. The IITs have been running their admission tests for several decades with no complaints whatsoever; the Union Public Service Commission conducts several examinations in which about 35 lakh candidates apply every year. Both these examinations are vetted by applicants as of highest integrity.

The government must at least now apply its mind to understand what went wrong with the NTA and show the will to fix them. An early beginning can be made with the implementation of the recommendations of the Radhakrishnan committee with respect to ensuring institutional integrity of the NTA. What we lack are not committees and laws but the will to make changes. The government must display it.