A parliamentary committee has flagged staff shortages at the National Testing Agency (NTA) and recommended structural reforms to strengthen examination security, technology and administrative capacity. According to a report tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Friday, 16 of the agency’s 39 sanctioned permanent positions remain vacant, leaving around 41% of its core posts unfilled. The report also noted that the NTA director general’s position remained under additional charge for nearly two years, from June 2024 to April 2026, raising concerns about staffing and leadership arrangements at the agency responsible for conducting major entrance examinations.

The 31-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, headed by Congress MP Mukul Wasnik, recommended permanent recruitment of specialists in examination security, technology, data analytics and logistics. It said the agency needed stronger in-house expertise to reduce its dependence on officials appointed on deputation and private contractors. Building permanent technical and operational capacity would form part of the broader effort to improve the management and credibility of examinations conducted by the NTA.

The committee’s recommendations follow the cancellation of NEET-UG 2026 on May 12 after at least 120 questions in a compilation of suggested questions were found to match questions in the examination paper used on May 3. The episode has renewed scrutiny of the processes used to prepare, secure and distribute question papers. The panel proposed a continuously updated question bank from which examination papers could be generated digitally close to the test dates. It also recommended that questions be vetted by experts and kept under strict quarantine until the examinations were completed.

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The report further called for greater public disclosure of examination irregularities and the findings of related investigations. It noted a difference between the Education Ministry’s position that no NTA-conducted examination had suffered a paper leak between 2017 and 2025 and the views expressed by some committee members. The recommendation for greater transparency is intended to make information about examination-related incidents and their investigation more accessible, although the report’s account of differing views indicates that assessments of past irregularities remain contested.

The NTA’s legal workload has also been highlighted as an area of concern. Its annual report for 2024–25 recorded 474 court cases, including 69 in the Supreme Court. Of the total, 356 cases were related to NEET-UG 2024, illustrating the scale of litigation associated with the agency’s examinations. The figures underline the legal and administrative demands placed on the organisation, particularly when examination processes or results are challenged.

Alongside recruitment and examination-security measures, the parliamentary panel recommended establishing a dedicated research wing and improving transparency in the publication of examination results. Together, the proposals seek to strengthen the agency’s technical capacity, oversight and examination procedures. The report’s findings place staffing gaps, leadership arrangements and safeguards for question papers among the issues requiring attention as the NTA works to administer large-scale competitive examinations. The recommendations outline possible reforms, but the supplied report does not specify a timeline for their implementation.

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