NTA sacks over 50 staff, begins system overhaul amid UGC-NET re-exam row

The National Testing Agency (NTA) removed more than 50 staff members and began onboarding professionals for key leadership positions on Monday, August 17, as it faced fresh criticism over a decision to re-conduct the UGC-NET exam in three subjects following errors in question papers, officials said.

The shake-up came as opposition parties and student groups staged protests in Delhi following Sunday night's announcement of the retest, with demands that the NTA be scrapped over what they called "repeated lapses" jeopardising students' academic and career prospects.

NTA sources said the agency had acted in students' interest and was reviewing internal processes and protocols to ensure error-free examinations going forward, adding that all corrective measures were aimed at strengthening accountability within the exam system.

Education Minister Pralhad Joshi, who took charge after Dharmendra Pradhan resigned amid student protests over the NEET-UG paper leak, held a meeting with the secretary of the Department of Higher Education, the NTA director general and other senior officials, the ministry said.

He was briefed on steps taken by the agency to address recent issues and reform the examination system, and was informed that over 50 staff had been removed from the NTA, according to the ministry.

Ten new professional leadership positions including chief technology officer, chief finance officer, chief information security officer, GM (test security) and GM (research, development and psychometrics) have been advertised and are being filled, the ministry said. Domain specialists from the private sector are also being brought in for cybersecurity, psychometrics, question paper design and other specialised areas, it added.

Joshi directed strict compliance with established exam protocols and ordered a complete overhaul of the confidential operations (CONOPS) architecture, secluded rooms, air-gapped systems and device deposit protocols on a war footing, the ministry said. The NTA has also been asked to conduct a thorough audit of all exam processes and submit a report on corrective actions.

Posting on X later, Joshi said the discussion centred on strengthening the education ecosystem through broader reforms, with emphasis on transformative changes and addressing challenges across school and higher education to build a more robust and future-ready system.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticised the Modi government and demanded accountability from the NTA's leadership. In a post on X, he alleged the education system had turned into "an extraction machine" and said Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation was "the first step, not the last," adding that NTA's leadership must also be held responsible.

Other Congress leaders accused the government of making students pay for the NTA's inefficiency and said the party would continue pressing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to answer for students' "stolen" years. The Aam Aadmi Party said on X that the issue was not a "minor error" but a failure costing students time, money, mental peace and opportunities.

Several student organisations, including the National Students Union of India (NSUI), Students' Federation of India (SFI), All India Students' Association (AISA) and Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS), held protests in Delhi on Monday and announced nationwide demonstrations against the re-exam decision.

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the RSS's student wing, also voiced concern. Its National General Secretary, Virendra Singh Solanki, said students' futures could not be compromised and called for the NTA to be held accountable.

The re-tests for the English and Commerce papers will be held on September 9, while the Sociology exam will be conducted on September 10. The NTA had originally conducted the UGC-NET June 2026 exam from June 22 to 30 across 87 subjects for junior research fellowship awards, assistant professor eligibility and PhD admissions.

A source said an examination-conducting agency's responsibility extends beyond holding error-free tests to acting promptly and honestly when anomalies surface, adding that the NTA had taken ownership of the lapses and opted for corrective action rather than concealing the problem.

"The willingness to identify problems proactively, to admit them, and to act, even where action is difficult, is itself the foundation of a more accountable examination system," the source said, adding that an agency conducting exams at this scale would occasionally encounter problems, and its credibility rested on finding, owning and correcting them.

The NTA said it had received multiple complaints about errors in three papers and formed a committee to examine the lapses. "The committee identified the anomalies in the three subjects and recommended that, in the interest of holding a fair and error-free examination, these three papers should be re-conducted," the agency said, adding that papers with such defects did not meet the standards of fairness expected of the exam.

(Inputs from PTI)