Lok Sabha Question No. 162 (STARRED), answered on 2018-07-30
Subject: National Testing Agency
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: MAUSAM NOOR, S. RAJENDRAN

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 162 TO BE ANSWERED ON 30.07.2018

## National Testing Agency

- *162.   SHRIMATI MAUSAM NOOR: SHRI S. RAJENDRAN:

Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Union Government has decided that newly formed National Testing  Agency  (NTA)  would  conduct  the  national  level  examinations like  National  Eligibility  Test,  National  Eligibility-cum-Entrance  Test, Joint Entrance Examination that were organised by the Central Board of  Secondary  Education,  if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  reasons therefor along with the composition of NTA including the qualifications of the people comprising the Agency;
- (b) the details of assignments/functions, objectives, funding for NTA along with its preparations for conducting such examinations;
- (c) whether extensive consultations with State Governments and professionals  from  the  domain  of  higher  education  were  held  prior  to the establishment of NTA and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether the Agency will also train paper-setters to set better question papers and provide better model answers and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) whether there have been cases of leakage of questions papers, delays in result etc. in examinations at various levels in the country and if so, the steps taken by the Union Government to make the examination system transparent?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (SHRI PRAKASH JAVADEKAR)

(a) to (e): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (e)  OF  LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 162 TO BE ANSWERED ON 30.07.2018 REGARDING  'NATIONAL  TESTING  AGENCY'  RAISED  BY  SHRIMATI MAUSAM NOOR AND SHRI S. RAJENDRAN:

(a) to (e) : The Government has created National Testing Agency (NTA) as an autonomous  and  self-sustained  premier  testing  organization  to  conduct entrance examinations for higher education, which were being conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and All India Council for Technical  Education  (AICTE).  The  objective  is  to  have  a  specialized  and dedicated body for conducting these high-stake entrance examinations and at the same time, relieve CBSE of this responsibility to enable it to fulfil its core mandate. The Government has mandated NTA to conduct the examination in a  scientific  manner  involving  experts.  All  the  examinations  of  NTA  were mandated to be conducted twice a year for the benefit of students.

Based on the request of the stakeholders, Ministries/Departments/Agencies, the  UGC-NET,  JEE(Main),  NEET-UG,  C-MAT  and  C-PAT  examinations  have been entrusted to NTA.  NTA has notified the examination schedule for the year  2019  on  its  website  https://ntaexams.co.in.  NTA  proposes  to  conduct the tests twice a year in order to give the students adequate opportunity to bring  out  their  best  as  well  as  to  remove  the  possibility  of  human  error  in evaluation.

As  per  rules  and  regulations  of  the  NTA,  the  General  Body,  which  decides policy matters, comprises of 17 members who are educationists of repute and nominees of the Government both from the Centre and the State. In addition, the General Body will have Testing experts, representative of Higher Educational Institutions, School Education Boards and officials of the NTA. The  objectives  of  the  NTA,  inter-alia,  are  conducting  efficient,  transparent tests designed in a scientific manner for assessing competence of students. It will train subject matter experts and prepare test items in collaboration with psychometricians to ensure that the tests are well balanced. Data of previous tests  will  be  analyzed  and  deliberated  with  subject  matter  experts  for designing better  question  papers.  NTA  will  be  a  self-sustained  organization. However, in order to set up and start its operations, a provision of Rs.25 crore as one-time grant has been made, out of which a sum of Rs.10 crore has been released.

Extensive consultations have been made with the concerned Ministries/Departments of the Government  of India as well as other stakeholders both from Central and State Government in a workshop held on 1-9-2017 before the proposal was approved.

CBSE  has  informed  that  there  have  been  only  two  instances  of  leakage  of question papers one in 2004 in respect of AIPMT and the other in 2011 in respect  of  AIEEE.  However,  there  has  never  been  delay  in  declaration  of results  of  such  examinations.  In  order  to  ensure  absolute  transparency, CBSE  displays  the  OMR  sheets,  answer  key  and  the  answers  of  the candidates on its website before declaration of result, which can be challenged by the candidates.

With regard to Board examinations, CBSE has further informed that leakage of  Economics of  Class  XII  and  Mathematics  of  Class  X  could  be  confirmed. Re-examination of Economics for Class XII was held on 25th April, 2018.  It was,  however,  decided  not  to  hold  a  re-test  for  the  Class  X  Mathematics keeping in view the interest of students and the fact that Class X examination is  essentially  a  gateway  for  class  XI  and  an  internal  segment  of  school education system. The matter was reported to the police, who  after investigation arrested the people involved in leakage and the school concerned was disaffiliated by CBSE.

As a remedial step, CBSE has decided to send encrypted question papers to the  examination  centres  with  option  of  multiple  sets.  This  was  successfully implemented  in  the  compartment  examinations  in  July,  2018  for  select subjects.  Norms  for  centre  fixation  and  custodian  identification  have  been made more stringent and every centre has been assigned external observers to  monitor  the  affairs  of  examination.  CBSE  has  also  adopted  a  three  tier system to address errors in totalling and marking by teachers.

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