No more recruitment exams by NTA: Education Minister

The National Testing Agency (NTA) will not conduct any recruitment exams starting 2025 and will focus on only higher education entrance exams, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Tuesday.

The move is part of examination reforms based on recommendation of a high level panel set up earlier this year following alleged leak of medical entrance NEET exam and series of cancellations of other exams due to suspected leaks and other glitches.

The Ministry is also in conversation with the Health Ministry about whether the exam should be conducted in traditional pen and paper based mode or switch to a Computer Based Test (CBT).

“NTA will be limited to conducting only entrance exams for higher education and will not conduct any recruitment exams from next year,” Pradhan told reporters.

The Minister also clarified that the Common University Entrance Test (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.

Pradhan said that NTA will be restructured in 2025.

“The agency will be restructured in 2025, at least ten new posts are being created and there will be many changes in functioning of NTA to ensure there is zero-error testing,” he said.