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All eyes are on how prepared the National Testing Agency, which conducts 15 major entrance and fellowship exams in which over one crore students appear every year, is in its task of conducting error-free and leak-proof exams. And performs.
Soon after the NEET-UG 2024 results were declared in June, there was a massive nationwide outrage with allegations of irregularities, paper leaks and inflated marks coming from different parts of the country. (PTI)
The year 2024, for India, was not only shaped by politics, arts and entertainment, but was also a turning point in the education system that not only impacted millions of students and put their future at stake, but also marked a nexus of Revealed which gave me sleepless nights. To the testing agencies as well as the Central Government.
As 2025 approaches, there are still question marks over the integrity, credibility and security of high-stakes competitive exams like the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG), even though the government says it is committed to a “fair” and to provide a “loophole-free” examination system.
As another cycle of entry-level exams into the country’s top engineering and medical colleges is about to begin, all eyes are on how the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts 15 major entrance and fellowship exams – will Well – in which more than one crore students appear every year – prepares and performs in its task of conducting error-free and leak-proof exams. These examinations include NEET-UG, UGC-NET, JEE-Mains and CUET-UG among others.
The new year will begin with young students who have passed Class 12 appearing for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Mains. The first session of the entrance exam will be held from January 22-31, 2025, and the second session will be held from April 1-8, 2025. JEE-Mains is conducted to shortlist eligible candidates for JEE-Advanced on the basis of scores. Out of which one can get admission into the premier engineering colleges of the country – Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). After this, NEET-UG, which till now is the single entry level examination for admission to government and private medical colleges, will be conducted in May. It is conducted in pen-and-paper mode and is one of the biggest examinations conducted by NTA.
Established in 2017 by the NDA government, NTA was established as an independent, autonomous body under the Ministry of Education responsible for conducting standardized entrance examinations for educational institutions.
Soon after the NEET-UG 2024 results were declared in June, there was a massive nationwide outrage with allegations of irregularities, paper leaks and inflated marks coming from different parts of the country. There were also reports of involvement of examination center personnel in leaking question papers from Godhra in Gujarat and Jharkhand. The case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has so far filed five charge sheets against a total of 45 accused in the NEET (UG) paper theft case.
The allegations reached the courts and ultimately reached the Supreme Court, where a bench heard all the petitions filed in the case – both in favor of the retrial as well as against it. The apex court delivered its verdict on August 2, refusing to conduct re-examination and asking NTA to completely restructure the examination process.
Following the NEET-UG controversy, the UGC-NET exam was canceled following reports of paper leaks on the darknet. Later, the UGC-CSIR NET exam was also postponed due to intelligence inputs of some possible malpractices in its conduct. This year, 23.3 lakh students appeared for NEET-UG, while nine lakh students sat for UGC-NET and around two lakh were set to give CSIR-NET.
A seven-member panel constituted by the Union Ministry of Education (MoE) in July to recommend reforms to strengthen the NTA along with an error-free entrance examination system has suggested several key measures, including Computer Based Test (CBT). Format for all entrance exams and hybrid model for locations where full online exams cannot be conducted; In case of hybrid model, question papers will be transmitted digitally (till now pen-and-paper mode question papers were kept in banks and then delivered to the examination centres); Conducting a multi-tier examination for NEET-UG similar to JEE; Reducing the number of subject options in CUET-UG; Hiring permanent personnel instead of temporary employees in NTA; and limiting the number of outsourced/private centers by setting up new CBT centers in government-run institutions. The panel was led by former Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chief K Radhakrishnan.
Ministry clarified the situation
According to ministry officials, the process of implementing the panel’s recommendations is underway. “The measures are being implemented step by step. Some of these are systemic changes and will take some time to implement,” said a senior official familiar with the matter.
A written reply submitted by the Education Ministry in Parliament this November said that a high-powered steering committee has been constituted to monitor the implementation of the recommendations made by the Radhakrishnan Committee.
The response said, “The committee’s recommendations include strengthening the NTA, developing institutional linkages with states and district authorities to provide secure test administration tools, and involvement of test indenturing agencies as knowledge and testing partners. “
It further said that the committee has also suggested measures and recommended standard operating procedures (SOPs) to prevent violations in both Pen and Paper Test (PPT) and Computer Based Test (CBT) examinations.
“Guidelines for question paper setting and checking as per the defined protocols have also been recommended. Further, among other recommendations, the panel has called for developing a detailed framework on test center allotment policy to prevent any unusual pattern of test center allotment to students,” the ministry said.
As a measure to prevent unfair means in public examinations, the Center has also enacted the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, which came into force from June 21 this year.
NTA is ready to remove the flaws
Several central testing agencies tasked with finding loopholes at examination centers told the NTA that many examination centers were “compromised” and that examination personnel at the centers were involved in malpractices. He also advised the testing agency to expand its pool of observers. , from both the Center and the State.
Following inputs, a public notification released on the NTA website on November 27 said the agency is looking for serving or retired government officials to become observers.
“We are assembling a group of serving and retired government officials as well as other categories of officials for the National Testing Agency to conduct the examination in a transparent and smoothly manner,” the notification said.
It further stated that invigilators have a dual role in the NTA test administration process. On one hand, they assist site invigilators, invigilators and other officials in conducting fair and smooth examinations, while on the other, they certify that the examination practices have been followed as per the NTA guidelines.
Invigilators are NTA representatives who are entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring all aspects of the conduct of the examination and ensuring that the examination is conducted in a timely, fair and transparent manner at the examination centre.
They are required to attend the briefing convened by the Center Head for invigilators, security persons/volunteers and all concerned staff regarding important instructions on conduct of the examination, Do’s and Don’ts, entry of candidates and search plan (for both) will be. male fermale).
Apart from observing the server connectivity and settings in the control/server room, observers will also have to observe/certify that the server activation and question paper downloading is done as per the confidentiality norms.
NTA is also in talks with IITs, NITs and other such institutes where testing centers can be set up as these are better equipped with internet connectivity.
Major changes in CUET-UG 2025
CUET-UG is the second biggest entrance exam in the country after NEET-UG in which around 15 lakh students appeared last year.
Major changes were announced for the upcoming CUET-UG 2025 in mid-December. As per the suggestion of Radhakrishnan Committee, the choice of subjects has been reduced from 63 to 37. This is because 20 language subjects have been discontinued, while admission to the removed subjects can be done on the basis of General Aptitude Test (GAT) score. Also, earlier there were 29 domain-specific topics, which will be reduced to 23 from next year.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided to discontinue six papers – Entrepreneurship, Teaching Aptitude, Fashion Studies, Tourism, Legal Studies and Engineering Graphics. Admission for these subjects can be done on the basis of GAT score.
Apart from this, there will be a uniform exam duration of 60 minutes from next year, which till now used to be 45-60 minutes for different subjects.
Another change in the format from next year is that all 50 questions will be compulsory in CUET, whereas last year students could choose to answer 40 questions. All papers will be of total 250 marks and there will be negative marking for each wrong answer.
The examination, introduced in 2022 for admission to undergraduate (UG) courses in all central universities, was conducted in hybrid mode for the first time in 2024. This was a change from the previous year when it was held in the CBT format. This change was made from last year, the exam schedule was extended by more than a month, delaying the admission cycle due to lack of CBT centers at most places. Moreover, in 2023, there were many Union Territories and States like Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and North-East, where finding adequate examination centers was a hassle.
Now that CUET-UG is being shifted to CBT mode again from 2025, all eyes will be on how the logistics are arranged.
“CBT format is the safest for entrance exams. Logistics problems will arise only if preparation of these resources is not planned in advance. With advance and strong planning and deployment of resources, the exam can be conducted glitch-free,” a senior ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
