Single agency for all entrance tests soon
NEW DELHI : The Union Cabinet on Friday cleared a proposal for the creation of a National Testing Agency (NTA), which will conduct all entrance tests that are at present being conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Under the NTA, the entrance examinations will be conducted online at least twice a year, to give adequate opportunity to the candidates to bring out their best.
NEWDELHI: The Union Cabinet on Friday cleared a proposal for the creation of a National Testing Agency (NTA), which will conduct all entrance tests that are at present being conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
“The NTA would initially conduct those entrance examinations that are currently being conducted by the CBSE. Other examinations will be taken up gradually by the NTA,” said an official statement.
Under the NTA, the entrance examinations will be conducted online at least twice a year, to give adequate opportunity to the candidates to bring out their best, the statement further said.
Apart from Class 10 and Class 12 board exams, CBSE conducts five other tests — Joint Engineering Entrance (JEE), National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET, for medical courses), University Grants Commission’s National Eligibility Test (for lectureship, held twice a year), Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET, held twice a year) and the test for Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (schools for gifted students).
To serve the requirements for rural students, the NTA will locate centres at sub-district and district level and undertake hands-on training to familiarise the students with computers.
Establishment of NTA will benefit about 4 million students appearing in various entrance examinations.
It will, over time, relieve the CBSE, AICTE, IITs, IIMs and other agencies from the responsibility of conducting these tests, enabling them to focus on their core mandate.
The agency will also bring in high reliability, standardised difficulty level to assess the aptitude, intelligence and problemsolving abilities of the students.