Taking a cue from GMAT, GRE and SAT examination patterns, the HRD Ministry has proposed a national testing scheme (NTS) that will be responsible for conduct of online entrance tests for professional and academic courses — be it engineering, management or any other national-level test.
HRD Secretary Ashok Thakur said NTS would be nationally acceptable and provide the student with opportunities to improve on his/her scores. On a prototype basis, the Ministry is considering getting UGC-NET exam conducted through NTS by late this year or early 2014.
UGC-NET, for instance, is conducted biannually and the eligible candidate has only two opportunities. In the NTS system, however, while UGC will have no role, a candidate will have the option of taking the entrance test multiple times, over a certain period of time.
The score of one NTS test could be applicable for admission into various educational courses, subjected to eligibility criteria. It is on lines of GMAT (for MBA abroad), GRE (for postgraduation) and SAT (for undergraduate courses) conducted for admissions to international institutes.
A candidate obtaining a score in GMAT or SAT is qualified to apply in multiple colleges and at the same time, different countries too. The GMAT score is acceptable in many prestigious institutes like XlRI and ISB, among others, in India too.
“NTS would accommodate diversity in learning outcomes at the secondary level without compromising on its ability to indicate merit. It will account for the difference in social-economic background of students in a manner that is objective and discernible and elucidate diversity in categorisation at the level of States,” Thakur told The Pioneer. The matter is to be discussed in the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) meeting next week.
In the new concept, academicians and teachers at institutions may be kept away from conducting examinations, with responsibility entrusted to the NTS. A group of dedicated professionals and experts will be responsible for the research for question papers, administration, conduct of exams and declaration of results, all online.
NTS will also provide flexibility to institutions in structuring its admission process in a manner perceived to be transparent, fair, reasonable and reliable. The body will also be cost neutral for the testing agency with a mechanism to share revenue with participating State boards.
CBSE has already prepared a model with objective, structure and functions for an internationally benchmarked testing and assessment organisation facilitating in identification of competitive human resource NTS will have a full time executive body under a General Council with representation of heads of all State Testing Agencies. Eminent persons and educationist too may be on board for greater transparency. Thakur said, so far there is wider acceptability on the proposal and the matter has been deliberated at length with CBSE and GATE.
The HRD Ministry sources said testing agencies like Prometric may be roped in.