Amidst recent allegations of irregularities in several competitive examinations, questions about the efficiency and suitability of the National Testing Authority (NTA) have surfaced.
Established in 2017, the NTA administers crucial entrance and fellowship exams such as NEET, JEE, and CMAT, impacting over 10 million students annually. Despite its autonomous status, the NTA’s operations and leadership have come under scrutiny, prompting a high-level review by the government.
V Ramgopal Rao, Vice Chancellor at BITS Pilani, in a discussion with CNBC-TV18, emphasised the importance of educational institutions taking the lead in exam administration. Pointing to successful models such as the JEE Advanced Examination conducted by IITs, Rao argued that education and exams should be managed by educationists with a vested interest in maintaining the integrity and reputation of these exams.
He highlighted the exemplary track record of IITs, where faculty involvement ensures rigorous standards and accountability. “If an IIT exam gets leaked, the whole country talks bad about IITs, and which no IIT would want to do,” he noted, underscoring the ownership and commitment that comes with academic oversight.
Rao proposed that a constitutional body like the UPSC, known for its autonomy and expertise, could be a better model for conducting national exams if government involvement is necessary. Alternatively, he suggested that institutions like AIIMS could collectively manage exams like NEET, similar to how IITs handle JEE Advanced.
Dr Vidya Yeravdekar, Pro-Chancellor at Symbiosis International University, echoed Rao’s sentiments, stressing the need for academic involvement in the examination process. “Whether it's NTA or any other organisation, it is not just the commitment of people but also the knowledge,” she stated. She advocated for an autonomous body involving academicians dedicated to upholding the seriousness and integrity of the examination process.
Drawing from Symbiosis International University’s experience, Yeravdekar described how their MBA entrance exam, the Symbiosis National Aptitude (SNAP) Test, is conducted. The university outsources the exam to TCS, which manages it online, ensuring robust security measures and a dedicated team to oversee the process. She also emphasised the importance of giving students multiple opportunities to take the exam, enhancing accessibility and fairness.
The recent removal of NTA's chief, Subodh Kumar Singh, and the education minister’s labelling of the leaks as an "institutional failure" highlight the urgent need for reforms.
Gaurav Gogoi, a Congress MP, criticised the government’s response as inadequate and called for the resignation of the education minister and an impartial inquiry into the NTA’s operations.
Edited excerpts:
Q: Dr. Rao, if I ask you about the NTA as a body, it was formed in 2017. This was a private autonomous body. Yes, it was headed by an IAS officer, and now it has been replaced with another IAS officer, but it is registered under the Registration of Societies Act under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Should an agency that has to conduct tests of such scale involving exams with 24 lakh candidates and 11 lakh candidates have a private body conduct such tests, or should it be brought completely under government control?
Rao: No, I think the government control will be even worse. The best models probably are, for example, IITs conducting the JEE Advanced Examination. The JEE Advanced Examination is about 2 lakh students, a completely online exam. Even the GATE exam that IITs conduct, which is again 12 lakh-13 lakh students at one point in time, 's again an online kind of exam. I think education and exams need to be left to educationists. I don't believe that a bureaucrat sitting in a ministry without any ownership of that exam or commitment to the whole thing because bureaucrats keep changing every two years. Many of them have nothing at stake, whereas when IITs conduct the exam, it's like a commitment. It's ownership. Their entire name is at stake. If an IIT exam gets leaked, the country talks badly about IITs, which no IIT would want to do. If we look at the JEE Advanced Examination track record, there was never a question paper leak or any problem. That is because of the faculty's involvement in this examination from day one. At every stage, the faculty members are involved in the IIT examinations. I think that is the kind of commitment that IITs have. However, if you want to do it in the government system, I think UPSC is probably a better model because UPSC has that autonomy, it has a board, it has the UPSC members and all of that, and they are people who have gone through a similar kind of a thing. They know what is at stake, and autonomy is also associated with UPSC. They rope in all the kinds of experts and all of that. So I think instead of an NTA model, I would believe a constitutional body like UPSC conducting the exam if the government needs to do that. Otherwise, leave it to AIIMS. All our AIIMS can come together and conduct this exam like IITs do for the JEE Advanced or the GATE examination. If you want to learn from the world, SAT is one good model. The SAT exam is also used by almost two million students. There is a question bank for the SAT, and you can take the exam any number of times. And I think that's one kind of a model that one can move to. So there are multiple models, but I think NTA is not the right body to conduct these exams with some IAS officers who are heading that.
Q: Dr. Vidya, do you also believe that NTA as a body has been unable to do its job? It hasn't been framed correctly. We need a new body. Do you think there should be a body with a large strength of people conducting exams, or should it be a very lean team that works confidentially and conducts exams completely online as you do in Symbiosis or as we do in IITs across the country?
Yeravdekar: Whether it's NTA or any other organisation that is responsible for conducting this examination, it is not just the commitment of people but also the knowledge. So, if you involve academics in any conduct of such an examination, AIIMS would be the right people to look at the NEET examination. So, there could be an autonomous body, but it would involve academicians because academicians are serious about examinations. Even in Symbiosis, people put their heads together. They're not concerned about families or anything personal while setting up the question bank. It's a very serious affair. It's a whole department that is responsible.
Q: Dr. Vidya, give us a sense of your experience conducting competitive tests at Symbiosis. Is there something we can replicate at a national level?
Yeravdekar: For our MBA entrance exam, we have a Symbiosis National Aptitude (SNAP) Test and over 1,00,000 students sit for this exam. We have outsourced it to TCS, and TCS conducts this online at their centres. However, there are a lot of security measures, and we have a whole department under the university that manages and operates the test. So that's at the postgraduate level. At the undergraduate level, we have another exam called SET. We have SLAT, which is again managed by TCS online for law. So it is looking at the security measures and having a team to monitor them well; that's how examinations become foolproof. We also give students the choice to appear for the exam at least three times so that if someone misses the exam once, he has a chance to appear on another day and maybe another day. So that's the way we conduct our examinations.
