• The National Testing Agency (NTA) has come across allegations of cheating, paper leaks and other irregularities impacting flagship examinations such as the NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) for undergraduate medical college admissions and the UGC-NET for Ph.D and assistant professor appointments.
• The NEET-UG controversy has spotlighted the widespread issue of paper leaks, a malpractice that has plagued India for years. In the past seven years, there have been 70 confirmed exam leaks across 15 states, casting serious doubts on the integrity of the nation''s examinations.

NATIONAL TESTING AGENCY

Background:

• In 2010, a committee comprising directors of IITs recommended establishing an autonomous and transparent body (NTA) through legislation, modelled after the Educational Testing Service (ETS) of the US.
• Prior to the NTA’s formation, various government bodies like the UGC, the CBSE, and central universities such as Delhi University and JNU conducted their own entrance examinations.

NTA:

• It was set up in 2017 as a specialist, self-sustaining and autonomous organisation under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Education.
• It is registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860, and falls under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
• Its director general and governing body are appointed by the Union government.
• As, it is registered as a society and is a separate legal entity, which raises questions about the government’s legal liability for the NTA’s actions.
• Its main mandate is to conduct efficient, transparent and international standard tests to assess the competency of candidates for admission, and recruitment purposes.
• Soon after it was established, the NTA took over the conduct of major all-India examinations, such as the JEE for engineering college admissions, NEET-UG, and UGC-NET (both of which had previously been conducted by the Central Board for Secondary Education or CBSE), as well as the entrance tests for Jawaharlal Nehru University and Delhi University.
• The National Education Policy of 2020 envisaged a broader role, recommending that the NTA conduct an entrance or aptitude test for all universities across the country. In all, the NTA now has charge for more than 20 examinations.

Functions:

1. To identify partner institutions with adequate infrastructure from the existing schools and higher education institutions that would facilitate the conduct of online examinations without adversely impacting their academic routine.
2. To create a question bank for all subjects using modern techniques.
3. To establish a strong R&D culture as well as a pool of experts in different aspects of testing.
4. To collaborate with international organisations like ETS (Educational Testing Services).
5. To undertake any other examination that is entrusted to it by the Ministries/Departments of Government of India/State Governments.

Major Issues with the Indian Examination System

• Lack of Credibility: There is a lack of credibility and consistency in examinations conducted by different boards and universities.
• Frequent Scandals: There are frequent reports of scandals related to paper leaks, cheating, and fake degrees, which erodes public trust in the examination system.
• Separate Assessment: Employers often disregard university/board certificates and conduct their own assessments of candidates.
• Overemphasis on Memory: Exams tend to test only rote learning and memory instead of higher-order skills like application, analysis, critical thinking, etc.
• Miss on Understanding: It leads to teaching practices focused solely on making students memorize content instead of truly understanding concepts.
• Flawed Assessments: Question papers often have errors, ambiguous questions, test irrelevant content, etc.
• Lack of Quality: Evaluation of answer sheets is also not standardized and differences in student learning are not properly reflected in grades awarded. This shows a lack of quality control in setting papers and checking them.
• Secrecy and Lack of Transparency: The entire exam process from setting papers to evaluating answer sheets is highly confidential. This lack of transparency allows mediocre practices to continue and facilitates exam malpractices.
• Inadequate Regulations: Regulators promote academic autonomy for colleges but do not enforce enough oversight on them. The decentralized system has led to a lack of standardization in learning assessments across institutions.
• Inadequate Penalties and Enforcement: The existing laws which criminalize cheating have not led to convictions which demonstrates lack of effective enforcement and penalties.
• Lack of Special Investigation Agency: India lacks a dedicated agency to investigate all types of examination offenses and bring culprits to justice quickly.

Impacts of Frequent Paper Leaks in India

• Emotional, Mental and Physical Fatigue: With the cancellation of exams, there is an increase in the fatigue of students and the fear of a new generation of aspirants joining the queue.
• Also, students from remote rural backgrounds and marginalized castes are disproportionately impacted as they come from economically backward backgrounds and such a cancellation of exams impacts them a lot.
• Disruption of Academic Calendars: The postponement and cancellation of exams due to paper leaks throw the academic schedules into disarray and cause uncertainty for students.
• Loss of Trust and Confidence: The frequent paper leaks lead to students losing their faith in the fairness of exams and questioning the value of their efforts and education.

Major Highlights of Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024 

• Objective of the Bill: To bring greater transparency, fairness and credibility to the public examination systems and to prevent unfair means in the public examinations.
• Serve as Model Draft: The Bill will serve as a model draft for States to adopt at their discretion which will aid States in preventing criminal elements from disrupting conduct of their State level public examinations.
• Defines Public Examinations: It is defined as any examination conducted by a public examination authority listed in the Schedule of the Bill, or any such other authority as may be notified by the Central Government.
• Schedule Lists Five Public Examination Authorities: Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Staff Selection Commission (SSC), Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs), Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS), and National Testing Agency (NTA).
• Unfair Means in Examination: Bill lists at least 15 actions that amount to using unfair means in public examinations for monetary or wrongful gain, including:
• Leakage of question paper or answer key, tampering with answer sheets, directly or indirectly assisting the candidate, conduct of fake examination, etc.

Punishment for Violations:

• Person Resorting to Unfair Means: Three to five years in prison, and a fine up to Rs 10 lakh.
• If the convict fails to pay the fine, additional punishment of imprisonment shall be imposed, as per the provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.
• Service Providers: Those engaged to provide for the conduct of the examination can be fined up to Rs 1 crore, along with other penalties.
• Organised Paper Leaks: Imprisonment for a term not less than five years, may extend to ten years and a fine which shall not be less than one crore rupees”.
• Does Not Target Candidates: Candidates appearing for the exams have been left out of its purview.
• National Technical Committee on Public Examinations: The bill proposes a high-level committee that will make recommendations to make the computerised examination process more secure.

What Needs to be Done to Reform India’s Examination Process?

Radhakrishnan committee: The high-level panel headed by former ISRO chief K. Radhakrishnan has been constituted to recommend-

1. Reforms in the examination process,
2. Improve data security protocols, and
3. Overhaul the NTA’s functioning.

• Adding manpower and infrastructure to the NTA: To equip it to take on large-scale pen-and-paper examinations, as these are more equitable, especially for students in rural and remote areas with little access to technology.

Road Ahead-

1. Full operational transparency in NTA- The institution of full transparency on part of NTA in the conduct and publishment of result , can help it regain trustworthiness in the eyes of candidates.
2. Accountability and punishment of the guilty- The government should take steps to re haul the NTA’s systems and personnel. This will ensure that the technical glitches, cheating scams, paper leaks, and proxy candidates that have plagued the exams this year are not allowed to happen again.
3. Dismantling the centralised structure of National Testing Agency- The centralised structure of the NTA should be dismantled. This may well curb the Union government’s centralising tendencies leading to examinations of enormous scale that are harder to manage in a far-flung nation.
4. Taking help from the State government- For all-India examinations, the States should join the Central Govt in recovering the integrity of the beleaguered examination system. The state governments should also be shared some responsibilities for entrance examinations.