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Ten months after the NEET-UG paper leak controversy that raised multiple questions on the working of the National Testing Agency (NTA), the top exam conducting body has been unable to recruit five senior key positions that were additionally opened in a bid to revamp the NTA.
The NTA has been set up as a specialised body to conduct examinations for entrance to higher education institutions.
In a response to a Rajya Sabha question, Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar stated that in order to further strengthen the NTA, 16 new posts were created by the government to be filled on deputation under the Central Staffing Scheme.
The NTA floated eight positions at the Director level and another eight at the Joint Director level. “Out of the newly created posts, three Joint Directors have already joined NTA,” the reply stated.
Education Officials told The Hindu that not all Joint Director posts were filled, and the recruitment has been delayed.
Under scrutiny
While NTA has conducted 250 exams involving 5.5 crore candidates since 2018, the exam body’s role came under scrutiny when allegations involving a massive paper leak scam surfaced in May last year.
As on November last year, the CBI filed five chargesheets against 45 accused who are beneficiaries of paper theft, the names of MBBS students who had solved the stolen paper or who had appeared in the exam as impersonators.
Post this, the Ministry of Education constituted a high-level committee of experts in June last year, headed by Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, former Chairman of ISRO and Chairman of the Board of Governors of IIT Kanpur, which submitted its report in October 2024.
The committee, in its report submitted in October last year, recommended the Reformation of National Common Entrance Testing, including the strengthening of NTA.
Other reforms suggested by the committee include institutional linkage with States, involvement of Test Indenting Agencies as Knowledge and Examinations partners, and so on.
The NTA is headed by a Director General appointed by the Union government. After last year’s controversy, IAS officer Subodh Kumar Singh was shunted out of NTA and was replaced by another bureaucrat, Pradeep Singh Kharola.
Presently number of employees working on deputation in NTA is 25. One employee has been absorbed in NTA from his parent department,” the reply stated. Additionally, 43 personnel are engaged in NTA on a contract basis.
In order to further make NTA more robust, 16 new posts were created, of which only three Joint Director posts of the eight have been filled.
Published – March 25, 2025 11:26 pm IST