NTA to hold entrance exams only: Pradhan

Says testing agency won’t conduct recruitment tests

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, Updated At : 08:30 AM Dec 18, 2024 IST

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan addresses a press conference at his residence in New Delhi on Tuesday. ANI

Starting 2025, the National Testing Agency (NTA) will no longer conduct recruitment examinations, instead it will focus only on entrance examinations for higher educational institutions.

Decision on NEET mode soon
The Education and Health Ministry are deliberating on whether to conduct medical entrance exam NEET-UG in pen and paper mode or online mode
A decision in this regard is expected soon, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Tuesday
The Education Ministry has held two rounds of talks with the Health Ministry headed by JP Nadda. Currently, NEET- UG is conducted offline — in pen and paper mode

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday said the decision has been made as per the high-level committee set up in June this year following allegations of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper leak.

He said there are ongoing discussions between education and health ministries whether NEET will be conducted in pen-paper mode or online mode.

The decision on the conduct of NEET examination will be finalised within a week, Pradhan said.

“The administrative ministry of NEET is the Health Ministry and we are in talks with them about whether NEET should be conducted in pen and paper mode or online mode. We have had two rounds of talks with the Health Ministry. As now talks at secretary level is one. Whatever option will be considered best suited for conducting the exam, NTA is ready to undertake the exercise,” Pradhan said.

Recruitment exams such as All-India Council for Technical Education, National Institute of Technology (non-teaching), Military Nursing Service Recruitment Exam (MNS) and National Highway Authority of India recruitment exams were conducted by the NTA apart from entrance exams like NEET-UG, JEE, CSIR NET, CSIR JRF among all.

The high-level committee was headed by former ISRO chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan to ensure transparent and fair conduct of examinations.

Multi-stage testing for NEET-UG as a viable possibility was also suggested by the expert committee.

Pradhan also said CUET-UG will continue to be conducted once a year. “The government is looking at moving to computer adaptive test and technology-driven entrance exams in the near future,” he said.