The National Testing Agency (NTA) is undertaking a major overhaul of its examination system following the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak and the recent cancellation of three UGC-NET papers over errors and repeated questions, with more than 50 staff removed and 10 new professional leadership positions being onboarded.
Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi held a meeting with the Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Deepti Gaur Mukherjee; NTA Director General, Abhishek Singh; and other senior officials, where he was apprised of the steps being taken by the agency to reform its overall examination system.
More than 50 NTA staff have been removed, while 10 new professional leadership positions have been advertised and are being onboarded. These include posts such as Chief Technology Officer, Chief Finance Officer, Chief Information Security Officer, General Manager for Test Security, and General Manager for Research and Development and Psychometrics.
The NTA is also bringing in domain specialists from the private sector for cyber-security, psychometrics, question-paper design and other specialised areas.
Complete Overhaul Of Exam Security
The education minister directed the NTA to ensure strict compliance with established examination protocols and ordered a complete overhaul of the Confidential Operations (CONOPS) architecture.
The overhaul will cover secluded rooms, air-gapped systems and device-deposit protocols. These measures have been directed to be implemented on a "war footing".
The NTA has also been asked to conduct a thorough audit of all examination processes and submit a report on the corrective action taken.
The measures are aimed at strengthening the system at different stages of examination conduct and preventing lapses at source.
Fresh Setback With UGC-NET Re-Exam
The overhaul comes soon after the NTA ordered a re-conduct of UGC-NET papers in English, Commerce and Sociology.
An NTA committee, formed after receiving complaints from candidates, found multiple factual, typographical and translation errors in the three papers. These included misspelt names of prominent scholars, garbled book titles, errors in question wording, grammatical and punctuation mistakes, and non-standard terms.
The committee also found a significant number of questions that had been repeated from previous examinations and recommended that the three papers be re-conducted to ensure a fair and error-free examination.
The English and Commerce papers will be re-conducted on September 9, while the Sociology paper will be held on September 10. Candidates will not have to pay an additional examination fee.
NEET-UG Crisis Triggered Protests
The latest overhaul follows the larger crisis over NEET-UG 2026, after the May 3 examination was cancelled following a paper leak.
The overhaul comes after months of scrutiny of the agency's examination processes, with student protests over the NEET-UG paper leak eventually leading to Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation. Pralhad Joshi was subsequently given charge of the Education Ministry.
The NTA is now seeking to strengthen not just examination security but also its professional and technical capabilities, with new leadership and specialist personnel being brought in.
The agency has also been directed to fix responsibility for lapses and ensure that examination protocols are followed strictly.