The National Testing Agency (NTA), set up as a registered society, remains under the control of the government and lacks in-house expertise, making it vulnerable to leaks and irregularities, several academics have pointed out.
The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), Joint Entrance Examination (Main), Common University Entrance Test (CUET) and the National Eligibility Test (NET) conducted by the NTA have witnessed glitches and paper leaks.
The NTA was incorporated in May 2018 under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
Prof. Anita Rampal, former dean of the faculty of education at the University of Delhi, said a public educational board or a testing agency must be a statutory body set up through a law passed by Parliament. It is expected to have its own academic and research divisions and should be accountable to the public.
She said the NTA did not have a sound in-house academic faculty or researchers and depended on outside expertise, making its processes vulnerable to irregularities.
The absence of a research wing does not allow it to conduct any longitudinal study to gauge if the students selected through the NEET, the national-level entrance exam for medical and dental courses, had the aptitude for the profession, Rampal pointed out.
According to the NTA website, the agency aims to “conduct efficient, transparent and international standards tests in order to assess the competency of candidates for admission purposes”.
“The NTA must carry out longitudinal studies to understand if the students selected through the NEET in the last 10 years were really competent and interested in medicine as a career. This testing agency must collaborate with the institutions and faculty members who teach these students. This will help to improve the selection process,” Rampal said.
Prof. N.K. Ambasht, former chairman of the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), said that unlike statutory bodies, the government had greater say in the affairs of registered societies.
“Statutory bodies are set up through laws passed by Parliament. For any change in provisions, the government has to go to Parliament. In the case of a registered society, its bylaws can be easily changed through a resolution in the governing body. The government can easily do that,” Ambasht said.
He said the NIOS was a registered society and the education minister was the president of its governing body.
However, the University Grants Commission (UGC), which is a statutory body, is run by a 12-member commission, which has only two representatives from the government. There are four university teachers and four others who could be experts in agriculture and engineering, among others.
In the NTA, 7 out of the 10 members are either directors or vice-chancellors of central educational institutions.
Ashok Ganguly, former chairman of the CBSE, said the NTA still seemed to be an ad hoc body with no structured set-up.
“Mostly, the people working there are either consultants or retired persons appointed on an ad hoc basis or on deputation. We need to have a structured setup like examination, research and academic wings. The controller of the exam must be supported by physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology experts, but they should not have any access to the question papers. The organisation must have regular staff in key positions,” Ganguly said.