The National Testing Agency (NTA) will now be responsible for conducting various National Level Entrance Examinations going forward, thus relieving educational bodies like CBSE, AICTE, etc from their current responsibilities of carrying out highly competitive and sought-after national level entrance exams like JEE Main, NEET UG, UGC NET, etc. The development comes in the light of Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley’s hint in the 2017-18 Budget speech wherein the FinMin had stated that a National body will be constituted for conducting the entrance examinations for higher education in India. The vision behind setting up the National Test Agency is to ensure one standardized test across the nation.
What will change with NTA?
1. The National Testing Agency aims to conduct these entrance exams twice a year as compared to the current scenario where JEE Main, NEET UG, UGC NET are conducted just once a year. It will relieve the mounting pressure on students to either clear the exams or wait for another year to get admission.
2. NTA is set up to curb allegations of variation in difficulty levels amongst different sets of papers. There have been petitions in the recent year related to such conflicts where Supreme Court had to intervene and resolve things. NTA aims to ensure a standardized difficulty level in these competitive entrance exams and run a smooth admissions process.
Who will constitute NTA?
The National Testing Agency will act as a Society registered under the Indian Societies Registration Act, 1860. The central government has already funded ₹25 Crores to NTA to initiate its operations in its first year of existence. The government is hopeful that NTA will become self-sustainable from its second year. The National Testing agency will work as an autonomous body. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) will appoint an educationist as the chairperson of NTA and a board of governors will be formed which will represent the NTA member institutions.
Comments
0 comment