NTA removes 600 subject experts
What's the story
The National Testing Agency (NTA) has undergone a major restructuring, removing 600 subject experts from its panels and replacing them with new specialists following directions from Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi to strengthen the agency's examination. The NTA also decided to introduce a four-tier system for checking question papers. The agency, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Education's Department of Higher Education, has been at the center of the storm over major lapses in conducting competitive exams, including NEET-UG.
Expansion and security
NTA to expand administrative workforce
The NTA also plans to expand its administrative workforce by inducting 20-25 officials in the next two to three weeks.
The agency's offices will be relocated to new premises on a "war footing," with Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) teams deployed for enhanced security.
The review meeting took place a day after Joshi met the Secretary, Department of Higher Education, the NTA Director General, and other senior officials to assess the steps being taken by the examination agency.
Others
50 staff had already been removed
During the meeting, the minister was informed of steps being taken to reform the NTA's entire examination system. Officials stated that more than 50 staff had already been removed from the agency.
The NTA will also fill in 10 new professional leadership posts, including Chief Technology Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Security Officer, General Manager (Test Security), and General Manager (Research and Development and Psychometrics).
Minister
Domain specialists from private sector are being hiredÂ
Joshi was also informed that domain professionals from the private sector are being hired for specialized areas such as cybersecurity, psychometrics, and question paper design.
Days ago, the NTA announced a retest for the UGC-NET June 2026 exams in English, Commerce, and Sociology after receiving complaints about multiple errors.
A committee formed by NTA to look into these discrepancies found the papers had many factual, typographical, translation errors, including misspelling of prominent scholars, garbled book titles, punctuation mistakes, among others.