Parliamentary Committee Says NTA Has Lost Trust; Wants Return to Pen-and-Paper Exams

Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education says NTA “has not inspired much confidence.” It recommends shifting back to pen-and-paper-based tests, much like CBSE and UPSC.

The parliamentary standing committee on education has criticised the National Testing Agency (NTA) for its conduct of the exams. The committee, chaired by Digvijaya Singh, pointed out that out of 14 competitive exams conducted by the NTA in 2024, at least five had “major issues.” These included postponements (for exams such as UGC‑NET, CSIR‑NET, NEET‑PG), a paper leak in NEET‑UG, and delayed results for CUET (UG/PG).

The report also noted that in JEE Main 2025 (January session), at least 12 questions had to be withdrawn due to errors in the final answer key, which further undermines trust. The committee wants a nationwide blacklist of firms involved in exam irregularities.

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The Committee highlights how the traditional pen-and-paper-based tests conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) have remained secure for years. For computer-based tests (CBT), the panel suggests that they should be conducted only at government-controlled centres, avoiding the private centres completely.

The panel highlighted that over the past six years, NTA collected around Rs. 3512.9 crore while spending about Rs. 3064.7 crore, generating a surplus of approximately Rs. 448 crore. It is recommended that this surplus be used to build NTA’s internal capacity and strengthen regulatory and monitoring systems for exam administration.

Entrance exams such as NEET, JEE Main and UGC-NET are gateways to academic and professional futures. Postponements, leaks, and answer key errors undermine the credibility of these exams and impact lakhs of students.