Union Cabinet Approves National Testing Agency for conducting all National Entrance Exams!
Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved a proposal for creation of/ setting up of a National Testing Agency (NTA), to conduct entrance tests which are at present being conducted by the CBSE.
The NTA will be created as a society under the Indian Societies Registration Act, 1860. The National Testing Agency would function as an autonomous body and will be chaired by an eminent educationist who will be appointed by the Human Resources Development Ministry (MHRD).
The National Testing Agency NTA would initially conduct entrance exams which are currently being conducted by the CBSE. All other exams, those conducted by the AICTE and other agencies, will be taken up gradually by the NTA.
The examinations will be conducted in online mode and will likely be conducted twice a year, thereby giving adequate opportunity to candidates to bring out their best. Two attempts for each student as proposed that mean now candidate have a chance to improve his/ her scores if they wish to; the better of the two scores will be considered.
Entrance examinations as Joint Engineering Entrance (JEE), NEET, UGC’s National Eligibility Test (twice a year), Central Teacher Eligibility Test CTET (twice a year) and the entrance test for Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, presently conducted by CBSE, would be conducted twice a year from 2019 on-wards.
Earlier, The Finance Minister in the budget speech of 2017-18 had announced that a national body will be set up which will be responsible for conducting entrance examinations for higher education.
The National Testing Agency NTA will be given a one-time grant of Rs 25 crore from the central government to start its operation in the first year. Thereafter, it is to be financially self-sustainable.