The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports headed by Mukul Wasnik submitted its 382nd report to the Rajya Sabha Speaker on October 9. This time the report is related to the ‘Reforms and Strengthening of the National Testing Agency (NTA)’ under the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education.

The report states that a large, varied and constantly updated ‘question bank’ is the most effective long-term solution to prevent paper leaks. It has also been suggested that instead of preparing question papers before the commencement of the examination, they should be prepared shortly before the examination and checked by experts.

Set the papers before the exam

According to the committee, by conducting the exam in the CBT format, there will be no need to print papers and carry them to exam centres. So, these questions do not need to be prepared long in advance. It should be prepared at the time of exam itself. These experts should be kept in complete isolation until the examination is over.

According to the committee, the National Testing Agency should rely on experts from our most renowned educational institutions – Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Indian Institute of Management (IIM) – to prepare and translate its question banks.

Computer test is best and exam should be conducted in shifts.

The committee has supported the phased shift of other exams including NEET-UG to Computer Best Test (CBT) mode. In this, the examination can be conducted in different shifts, provided the process of score normalization is independently audited and clear information about it is given in advance.

The report recommends setting up more than 1 thousand secure government CBT centers in a phased manner, with at least one examination center to be set up in every district and all centers to be controlled by the government. Apart from this, it is also recommended to create a national ‘black list’ of examination conducting agencies and prepare a permanent special cadre, as currently more than 40% of the important posts in this agency are lying vacant. Out of 39 sanctioned posts, currently only 23 officers are posted in the agency.

There is no frequent checking of students during the examination

Apart from this, the report also warned against excessive intrusion of students and hostile environment in the exam hall during the examination. A separate period of 15 minutes should be fixed before the commencement of the examination or after the completion of the examination and the test work should not be conducted during the prescribed period of the examination. Also, it was claimed by the higher education department that since the creation of NTA till 2025, none of its exams has had a paper leak.

The committee suggests that students who reach the examination hall late during the examination should be allowed to take the examination. Also, they should be allowed to take the exam only for the rest of the time and should not get any extra time. Also, public rallies, processions or other large public events should be banned on the day of the examination.

Referring to the Civil Services Examination, the Committee said that the National Examination Agency should work on a two-tier examination system for its main examinations instead of a single examination on the lines of the Civil Services Examination. A common preliminary examination may be conducted for all medical courses but then separate mains examinations are conducted for various specific courses.

The committee recommends that the number of attempts to appear in the NEET (Graduate) examination should be fixed. The committee says that the National Examination Agency should develop an organizational work culture in which every officer, from the Director General to the room inspector of an examination center, considers himself not just an administrative staff, but a custodian of the fairness and integrity of the examination.

During the preparation of the 382nd report on behalf of the Parliamentary Committee, former Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Secretary to the Ministry of Education, Secretary to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Chairman National Testing Agency and Director General of National Testing Agency Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman of the Department of Space and representatives of the High Level Expert Committee and other departments were heard. The Committee considered and accepted the report in its meeting held on August 25. Several recommendations have been made by the committee in the report.