A day after the Union Education Ministry sought a detailed report from the National Testing Agency (NTA) on reforming the overall system, NTA officials said that 600 experts from its examination team have been removed and new experts onboarded as part of a revamp.
“We are revamping the examination team by removing 600 experts and onboarding new experts. The NTA said that 20 to 25 new officials will be inducted over the next two to three weeks, while NTA offices will be swiftly shifted to their new premises, where security will be reinforced with the aid of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) teams. Mr. Joshi had also directed that strict compliance to the established exam protocols must be enforced. This would include setting up secluded rooms, air-gapped systems, and device-deposit protocols for people handling confidential information regarding question-paper setting. Ten new professional leadership positions — including Chief Technology Officer, Chief Finance Officer, Chief Information Security Officer, and General Managers for Test Security, Research and Development, and Psychometrics — have been advertised, and are being onboarded.
A four-tier question paper checking system will be put in place to strengthen the scrutiny of examination papers,” a senior NTA official said. The Education Ministry has directed the NTA to conduct a thorough audit of all exam processes and submit a report on corrective action, officials said. Sources said that a complete overhaul of the Confidential Operations (CONOPS) architecture was discussed. Officials in the meeting also said that more than fifty staffers had been removed from the NTA. “Domain specialists are being brought in from the private sector for cyber security, psychometrics, question-paper design, and other specialised areas,” officials said. “We are taking steps to put corrective steps in place to address these issues,” NTA officials said.
