New Delhi: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced that the National Testing Agency (NTA) will focus only on higher education entrance exams and will not conduct any recruitment examinations starting from the year 2025.
Currently, the NTA conducts the following recruitment exams:
- Military Nursing Service Recruitment Exam (MNS)
- National Highways Authority of India recruitment exam
- All India Council for Technical Education recruitment entrance test (AICTE)
- Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti Recruitment Exam
- Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching (AIRPIT)
- Delhi High Court Senior Personal Assistant and Personal Assistant Examination
- National Horticulture Board Recruitment exams (NHB)
- Jawaharlal Nehru University Recruitment exam
- National Institutes of Technology non-teaching posts recruitment exams (NIT)
NTA Restructuring and Other Important Announcements:
The Education Ministry is also in conversation with the Health Ministry to decide whether the medical entrance exam should be conducted in online or traditional pen-paper mode. Besides this, Pradhan also clarified that the Common University Entrance Test (CUET)-UG will continue to be conducted once a year. Furthermore, Pradhan also shared that the NTA will be restructured in 2025 and 10 new posts have been created for the same.
These announcements come in light of the recommendations of a high-level panel set up to investigate the alleged leak of medical entrance NEET exam papers and the subsequent cancellations of other exams due to suspected leaks and other glitches.
The NEET UG 2024 Question Paper Leak- A Revisit:
The NEET UG 2024 exam, held on May 5, became a highly controversial topic after news of an alleged question paper leak came out. The issue aggravated after the results were declared which revealed an unusually high number of toppers and grace marks awarded to several students. Following the nationwide protests against the same, the case reached the Supreme Court, which ordered re-examinations for students receiving grace marks while dismissing pleas for nationwide re-tests. The Education Ministry too admitted to security lapses during the exam after initial denials.
Similarly, systemic errors and delays during the UGC NET 2024 exam led to its cancellation, meanwhile technical glitches on the CUET exam day disrupted the examination process.
Panel Recommendation for NTA:
As a result of the NEET UG controversy, the government appointed a panel chaired by the former Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chief, Dr. K. Radhakrishnan. It made the following recommendations to restructure NTA and enhance the examination process:
Forming a governing body consisting of domain experts
Strengthening the agency further with the appointment of additional personnel
Creating 10 different verticals within NTA with each managing specific areas such as research and development, test security, the infrastructure of test centers, international collaborations, etc.
These recommendations are expected to bolster the entrance test landscape in the country.
