Context: The National Testing Agency (NTA) submitted to the Supreme Court that the score cards of 1,563 candidates who were given compensatory marks in the common undergraduate medical entrance examination, NEET-UG 2024, will be cancelled.
About National Testing Agency
Charges against NEET 2024 conducted by NTA:
- There have been charges, including the slow distribution of question papers; providing the wrong question paper; wrong OMR sheets; and technical delays.
- There have been complaints about the unusually high number of students (67) who hit the perfect score, 720/720.
- Other cases pertaining to the question paper leak are still to be heard by the Supreme Court.
Experts and students pointed to how the very idea of starting NEET as a common entrance exam to regulate medical admissions in the country and ensure quality-control of the process would be defeated in the light of all the reported violations.
Need for National Testing Agency
- Entrance exams play a key role in admission(s) criteria of various bodies.
- Previously, all national entrance exams were conducted by different boards with different members and sometimes there were problems with question paper leakage etc., and therefore, the need was to have one body which organizes all the entrance exams.
- To assess competence of candidates for admissions and recruitment has always been a challenge in terms of matching with research based international standards, efficiency, transparency and error free delivery.
- The National Testing Agency is entrusted to address all such issues using best in every field, from test preparation, to test delivery and to test marking.
- It was established to improve the equity and quality in education by administering research based valid, reliable, efficient, transparent, fair and international level assessments.
- The best subject matter experts, psychometricians and IT delivery and security professionals will ensure that the current gaps in existing assessment systems are properly identified and bridged.
- NTA is established to create a system which will promote teaching (by teachers), learning (by students) and assessment (by parents and institutions).
- To practice these values, NTA will constantly engage with its stakeholders, viz. students, parents, teachers, experts and partner institutions.
National Testing Agency details
- An autonomous agency under the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education of India.
- Established: 2017
- It is a registered society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
- It is responsible for conducting numerous national-level exams for admission and fellowship in higher educational institutions related to engineering, medicine, management and pharmacy.
- Origin:
- The roots of the agency can be traced to the Programme of Action 1992, related to the National Policy of Education 1986, which mentioned conducting national-level common entrance tests to professional and non-professional programmes of study.
- In 2017, an announcement about the NTA was made in the budget speech, and this was followed by Cabinet approval.
- The agency is administered by a governing body which includes a chairperson, a secretary and eight or more officials representing different national level institutes.
- The Governing Body is chaired by the Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education.
- The Governing Body is responsible for the overall policy and direction of the NTA.
- Some of the exams conducted by the NTA every year:
- NTA NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test)
- CMAT (Common Management Admission Test)
- Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test (GPAT)
- IGNOU PHD OPENMAT (MBA) Exam
Objectives of National Testing Agency:
- To conduct efficient, transparent and international standards tests in order to assess the competency of candidates for admission, and recruitment purposes.
- To undertake research on educational, professional and testing systems to identify gaps in the knowledge systems and take steps for bridging them.
- To identify experts and institutions in setting examination questions.
- To produce and disseminate information and research on education and professional development standards.
Functions of National Testing Agency:
- To identify partner institutions with adequate infrastructure from the existing schools and higher education institutions which would facilitate conduct of online examinations without adversely impacting their academic routine.
- To create a question bank for all subjects using the modern techniques
- To establish a strong R&D culture as well as a pool of experts in different aspects of testing
- To help individual colleges and universities in the field of testing and to provide training and advisory services to the institutions in India. To provide quality testing services to the academic institutions in India.
- To develop a State of Art culture of testing in India by using domestic and international expertise.
- To undertake any other examination that is entrusted to it by the Ministries/Departments of Government of India/State Governments.
- To undertake the reforms and training of school boards as well as other bodies where the testing standards should be comparable with the entrance examinations.