What is the National Testing Agency (NTA)?

Edited By: MADE EASY TEAM | Updated on Aug 29, 2024 03:54 PM IST | # OTHERS

The NTA, or National Testing Agency, is a government agency that is responsible for conducting various national-level examinations such as IIT-JEE, NEET-UG, etc. But what is the need of this agency, why the respective exam boards can’t directly conduct any exam? What is the role of the government in conducting exams? In this blog, we’ll find out the answers to all such questions.

Establishment of NTA

Competitive exams are the need of the hour. With so much population and limited resources, it is not possible for everyone to have access to the best facilities and resources. Be it getting a job, getting admission to Dream College, or anything else, the competition is fierce. The two most important things that are required in order to conduct any competition are the conducting authority and the participants. A conducting body is necessary to conduct any exam or competition. From the Olympics to any regional-level competition, the success of any competition depends largely on the arrangement of the conducting authority. A fair conduct authority also boosts the morale of the participants.

In competitive exams, it is also important that an unbiased central authority look after all the necessary arrangements, from registration to the exam date, from choosing the exam centers to the dress code, from conducting the exam to the declaration of the result. All of these should come under the umbrella of a central authority in order to have transparency in the system, and that is where NTA comes into the picture.

The NTA, or National Testing Agency, is an autonomous body that is in charge of conducting national-level competitive examinations. It works under the Department of Higher Education, under the Government of India. It was established in November 2017 under the Societies Registration Act 1860 by the Government of India.

The establishment of the NTA has provided a centralized organization that is solely responsible for conducting examinations. It has replaced many individual exam-conducting bodies. This has improved the efficiency, quality, and transparency of the competitive examinations. It has also reduced the burden on parents and students.

Let us look at the NTA’s objectives.

Objectives of NTA

The NTA has reduced the burden of conducting exams from other agencies. Let us look at the objectives of NTA:

Conduct the exam with full transparency, efficiency, and as per the international standard in order to assess the proficiency level of the candidate.
To do research on educational, professional, and testing systems in order to identify the gap in the education system and to take steps to bridge it.
To find experts and institutions for paper setting.
To do research on education and professional development standard.

Functions of NTA

The functions of NTA are given below:

To find institutes that have the necessary infrastructure to conduct the examination. However, this should not affect the academic schedule (if any) of the institutions.
To prepare a question bank for all subjects.
To promote research and development and create a pool of experts in different aspects of testing.
To help educational institutions in India by providing them adequate training in the field of testing.
To conduct other examinations that are assigned to them by other ministries or departments under the Government of India or state government.

Working of NTA

The NTA is accountable for all stages of conducting an examination, from the development of exam content to administering the exam to the declaration of the result. Let us have a look at the step-by-step overview of the workings of NTA.

NTA consults with various subject experts and develops the test content for different exams.
NTA administers the exam at different centres. The exams are conducted either in offline mode (pen and paper-based) or in online mode (computer-based).
After conducting the exam, NTA declares the results using different methods.

Team NTA

The NTA works under the Ministry of Education, Government of India. It has a team of education administrator, experts, researchers and assessment developers who have a single aim, which is to improve the teaching learning process in the class room of India using the scientifically designed and properly delivered assessments. These assessments ensure that merit prevails in the selection. The NTA has majorly 3 teams viz, Researchers and Psychometricians, Test Item Writers and Education Policy Specialists. Let us learn more about these teams.

Researchers: NTA has mainly 6 operational departments related to different examinations. Each department uses 6 researchers along with international experts for psychometrics and statistics. The main work of these researchers are:

To research and analyse the data to support the examination.
Establish good assessment practices.
Research about future assessment practices.

Psychometricians: The role of psychometricians is given below:

To maintain the reliability of the test in different versions.
To maintain and ensure the fairness of the test, so that any particular aspirant or group of aspirant doesn’t get any special advantage/disadvantage.
To maintain the validity of test by indicating that test measure the skills or knowledge that needs to be measured.

Test Item Writers: The test item writer are responsible for writing the test items for NTA. The NTA then uses multiple software to create tests
Education Policy Specialists: Since NTA have a huge data of students with various other demographic parameters across different subjects, so NTA analyse this data to inform the policy makers about the corrective measures required for improving teaching and learning.

The following members look after the administration of the NTA.

S.No.	Name	Designation
1	Prof. (Retd.) Pradeep Kumar Joshi, (Former Chairman, UPSC)	Chairperson
2	Shri Subodh Kumar Singh, IAS Director General (NTA)	Member Secretary
3	Three Directors of IITs in their ex-officio capacity as the present, preceding and succeeding Chairpersons of JEE (Advanced)	Member(s)
4	Two Directors of the NITs in their ex-officio capacity as the present and preceding Chairperson of CSAB	Member(s)
5	Two Directors of the IIMS in their Ex-officio capacity as the present and preceding Chairpersons of CAT	Member(s)
6	Director, IISER Pune (Representing IISERs, on rotation basis)	Member
7	Vice Chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru University (Representing Central Universities, on rotation basis)	Member
8	Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi	Member
9	Chairman, National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Bengaluru	Member
10	Dr. Harish Shetty, M.D. (Psychiatry), Dr. LH Hiranandani Hospital, Powai, Mumbai	Member

List of Exams conducted by the National Testing Agency

NTA conducts a lot of examination in online as well as offline mode, but not all. The list of examination conducted by the NTA are:

Joint Entrance Exam (JEE)
JNUEE
National Council for Hotel Management Joint Entrance Examination (NCHM JEE)
NTA NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test)
CMAT (Common Management Admission Test)
Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test (GPAT)
All India AYUSH Post Graduate Entrance Test (AIAPGET)
IGNOU PHD OPENMAT (MBA) Exam
ICAR AIEEA Exam
Uttar Pradesh Combined Entrance Test (UPCET)
NIS Patiala Exam
BBAU Entrance Exam
Delhi University Entrance Test (DUET )
BHU Entrance Exam
Common University Entrance Test (CUET UG)
Common University Entrance Test (CUET PG)
Joint Integrated Programme in Management Admission Test (JIPMAT)

Students preparing for exams like NEET-UG and IIT-JEE can go for the classroom courses offered by MENIIT. The duration of these classes ranges from one year to four years. MENIIT also offers crash courses for 12^th passed students who are preparing for NEET and IIT-JEE. MENIIT is a new initiative by MADE EASY, an institute for GATE, ESE and PSUs.