Paper Leaks, Exam Lapses: Parliamentary Panel Pulls Up NTA, Calls for Urgent Reforms

House Panel Raps NTA for Repeated Exam Failures, Flags Erosion of Student Trust.

A parliamentary standing committee on Monday sharply criticised the National Testing Agency (NTA), saying repeated exam errors, paper leaks and disruptions have badly shaken public confidence in the agency.

Presenting its report in Parliament, the panel said the NTA must “get its act together” after a year in which multiple national-level tests ran into serious trouble.

Multiple Exams Hit by Lapses

The committee noted that of the 14 competitive exams conducted by the NTA in 2024, at least five faced major issues. UGC-NET, CSIR-NET and NEET-PG were postponed, NEET-UG saw reported paper leaks, and CUET-UG/PG results were delayed.

The pattern continued into 2025. In the January JEE Main session, 12 questions had to be withdrawn due to errors in the final answer key — an issue the panel said further undermined the credibility of the testing process.

“These repeated lapses do not inspire confidence,” the committee said, adding that most failures were “entirely avoidable” and pointed to weak oversight and quality checks.

Panel Leans Toward Pen-and-Paper Exams

The committee also reviewed vulnerabilities in different exam formats. It was told pen-and-paper tests carry higher leak risks, while computer-based tests (CBTs) can be hacked with little trace. Even so, it recommended strengthening traditional pen-and-paper examinations, noting that long-standing systems followed by CBSE and UPSC remain largely leak-proof. It urged the NTA to study and adopt similar safeguards.

For CBTs, the panel called for strict restrictions — including conducting them only in government or government-controlled centres and never in private centres — to minimise tampering.

Urgent Reforms Needed, Panel Warns

The report concludes that unless the NTA undertakes a swift and comprehensive overhaul of its procedures, confidence in the national examination system will continue to erode, affecting millions of students who depend on these tests for academic and career pathways.