Education ministry presses NTA over slow exam reforms after NEET-UG leak, CUET delays

New Delhi: As the National Testing Authority (NTA) continues to lurch from one controversy to another even after the NEET-UG 2024 leak case, most recently from the issue of improper stapling of NEET-UG question papers landing it in court for confusing students to electricity failures at testing centres and late scheduling of the CUET exam, the education ministry has finally begun asking questions of the authority, ET has learnt.

ET has gathered that the education ministry recently asked the NTA about the status and progress on reforms suggested by the high-level committee helmed by former ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan. The communication has gone out in view of poor progress made by NTA so far on several fronts, it is learnt.

The reform agenda status has been sought nearly eight months after the education ministry's committee report on exam reforms and the NTA functioning was made public. At the core of it is tardy progress on exam reforms, imperative for a NEET-UG 2026 revamp besides a more efficient and predictable conduct of all exams, such as the UGC-NET and CUET which have also become taxing for students.


The committee in 2024 had made a series of recommendations to overhaul NTA in the aftermath of the NEET-UG leak case, ranging from structural reforms to re-working its test-related protocols.

One of the key recommendations that got moving at the behest of the Dharmendra Pradhan-led ministry was soon after the panel report was published, with the Union minister announcing that the NTA would only focus on and conduct higher education entrance exams and not service-related exams. On various other reform moves, however, it is still the ministry which has been nudging NTA and urging changes be made, ET has learnt.

It was felt that greater accountability and security apparatus can be ensured at government-run institutes functioning as test centres, compared to private schools. Internal government assessments of the NEET-UG 2024 fiasco also red flagged faulty allocation of test centres in several states. State governments and district administrations at many places also pointed out how the allocation of test centres by the NTA was puzzling in several cases as even state exams were never held at many of these.