National Testing Agency (NTA)

News Excerpt: 

Recently, the Centre government has removed the chief of the National Testing Agency (NTA) from his post.

More detail about news:

  • The Ministry of Personnel announced that Subodh Kumar Singh, who was the director general of the NTA, has been replaced by retired Indian Administration Service (IAS) officer Pradeep Singh Kharola.
  • Mr Kharola is the Chairman and Managing Editor of the India Trade Promotion Organisation and has been given additional charge as the director general of the NTA "till the appointment of a regular incumbent or until further orders".

Current issues associated with NTA

  • Over the past month, the agency has been caught in a string of controversies, starting with the row over irregularities in NEET-UG, an entrance test for undergraduate medical programmes.
  • This was followed by the cancellation of the UGC-NET examination for research scholars and university teachers.
  • The government also handed over the probe into the alleged irregularities, including the paper leaks, in the NEET-UG exam to the CBI. The agency is probing the alleged leaks that led to the cancellation of the UGC NET exam.
  • 1,500 students who had been given grace marks for NEET-UG are scheduled to take a retest.

Review committee to reform NTA:

  • The government constituted a seven-member committee to look at ways of improving the functioning of the NTA. 
  • The panel will be led by Dr K Radhakrishnan, a former ISRO chief and the current chairperson of the board of governors of IIT Kanpur, and will have former AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria as one of the members.
  • The expert panel has been mandated with assessing the NTA’s current grievance redressal mechanism, identifying areas of improvement, and making recommendations for enhanced efficiency. 
  • It will also make recommendations on the organizational structure of the NTA and clearly define the roles and responsibilities of functionaries at every level.

About National Testing Agency (NTA)

  • National Testing Agency (NTA) has been established (2017) as a premier, specialist, autonomous and self-sustained testing organization to conduct entrance examinations for admission/fellowship in higher educational institutions.
  • 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.
Objectives:
  • 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.

Unlike the NEET-UG, which was conducted by the NTA, an autonomous body under the Education Ministry, the NEET-PG is conducted by the National Board of Examinations, an autonomous body under the Health Ministry.

 

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