Congress says parliamentary panel's report exposes ‘grave incompetence, malpractice’ in NTA, Education Ministry

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Sunday launched a sharp attack on the Central government following the release of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education’s report on the National Testing Agency (NTA), alleging that the findings expose “grave incompetence and malpractice” within the examination-conducting body and the Ministry of Education.

The 382nd report, titled ‘Reforms and Strengthening of the National Testing Agency (NTA)’, was chaired by Congress Rajya Sabha member Mukul Wasnik and presented on October 9.

The report comes in the wake of the cancellation of the NEET-UG 2026 examination following question paper leaks.

Among the key recommendations made by Wasnik’s panel were shifting medical entrance examinations entirely to the Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode, introducing limits on the maximum age and number of attempts for NEET-UG, and using the NTA’s financial surplus to establish government-owned examination centres in every district.

The panel also called for stringent “quarantine” measures for question-setters to prevent question paper leaks.

In a statement, Jairam Ramesh said the report brings to light what he described as “grave incompetence and malpractice in the NTA and the Ministry of Education”.

“The Ministry of Education made the blatantly false and audacious claim to the Parliamentary Committee, ‘that no paper leak has occurred in an exam conducted by the NTA since its formation in 2017 till 2025’. There have been 9 paper leaks and irregularities in NTA conducted exams that we know of. What hope is there for a fair investigation or accountability when the Ministry even refuses to acknowledge what went wrong in the first place?” he questioned.

The Congress leader also raised concerns about the legal status and institutional structure of the NTA, pointing out that the agency is registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, rather than being established as a statutory body through an Act of Parliament.

According to him, this arrangement leaves the agency functioning with “limited accountability and parliamentary oversight”.

“The NTA has been designed as a ‘khokhla body’ that hands over all key responsibilities to private contractors,” Ramesh alleged, questioning the agency’s dependence on external firms for conducting examinations.

Highlighting what he described as a serious shortage of sanctioned posts and personnel, the Congress MP said the agency’s limited workforce made it heavily dependent on private contractors for examination-related operations.

“The NTA only has 39 sanctioned positions, which means that it must rely on private contractors to conduct examinations,” he said.

Pointing to the gap between sanctioned strength and the number of officials actually working in the agency, Ramesh added, “Of the 39 sanctioned posts, only 23 officers are currently in position -- a vacancy of 41 per cent. This is despite the emphasis of the K Radhakrishnan Committee on building the NTA's staff strength.”

“All the 39 permanent posts that exist in the NTA are filled through a deputation mode, with officers serving only a 2-3 year tenure. This prevents the development of institutional expertise and know-how,” he added.

The Congress leader also questioned the transparency of the NTA’s functioning, alleging that its existing structure and systems were inadequate to prevent examination-related irregularities and could create opportunities for those involved in paper leaks.

“Despite repeated recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, there is no nation-wide blacklist of firms who have a track record of failure in providing examination-related services such as paper setting, logistics, printing, administration etc. Firms that are blacklisted in one state routinely get government contracts in other states,” he said.

He also questioned the manner in which the NTA publishes examination results.

“The NTA does not publish NEET-UG results in a publicly accessible manner (unlike the UPSC). The anonymity of the results and the absence of test-centre wise data prevents transparency and the detection of anomalous patterns in the performance of candidates and test centres,” he added.

Ramesh further alleged that the government had failed to ensure stable leadership for the NTA during a period marked by repeated examination paper leaks and the need for institutional reforms.

He claimed that between the NEET paper leak of 2024 and the latest NEET paper leak of 2026, the position of Director General of the NTA was held by officers as an additional charge rather than being entrusted to a full-time incumbent.

“At a time when the NTA was already tackling multiple paper leaks and was supposed to implement the reforms proposed by the K Radhakrishnan Committee, the Modi Government failed to even appoint a full-time officer to lead the agency,” he said.

The Congress leader also accused the agency of functioning like a profit-oriented organisation instead of prioritising improvements in examination infrastructure and services for students.

Claiming that the NTA had accumulated a revenue surplus of Rs 590 crore, Ramesh said the funds were invested in fixed deposits to earn interest instead of being used to strengthen the agency’s examination-related infrastructure and capabilities or provide assistance to students.

Taking aim at the Central government and former Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Ramesh also recalled the government’s response to the committee’s earlier recommendations on reforming the NTA.

“The former Mantri Pradhan had dismissed this Standing Committee's previous recommendations on reforming the NTA because the Committee ‘had members of the Opposition in it’. We can only hope that the Modi Government sheds its arrogance for the limited time it has remaining and takes this report seriously,” he said.

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