Testing times: On the need to mend the National Testing Agency
The cancellation of the UGC-NET examination on Wednesday, just a day after its supposed “successful conduct” by the National Testing Agency (NTA), is one more load of straw threatening to break the agency’s creaking reputation. Coming as it did after irregularities in this year’s NEET-UG (medicine), and complaints about the JEE (engineering), the NTA is under intense pressure. In some ways, the Education Ministry’s actions are in stark contrast to its response to the ongoing NEET fiasco, and seem to indicate that it has learnt some lessons. It took suo motu action on the basis of the Home Ministry’s cybercrime team’s inputs, even without any formal complaints from candidates, unlike in the NEET case where it has dragged its feet through committees and court cases despite multiple allega...