NTA Overhaul: 1,000 secure exam centres, biometrics to prevent fraud, question paper changes, suggests panel

NEW DELHI: The High Level Committee of experts that reviewed the functioning of the National Testing Agency (NTA) recommends that the exam body set up 1,000 “secure Standard Testing Centres” across the country on 'war-footing'. It also recommends frequent changes in exam pattern and collecting biometric data of examinees, as part of a system of identity verification – called DIGI Exam – to prevent impersonation in NEET UG and other exams.

Multiphase exams, computer based testing (CBT), establishing a network of exam centres and “mobile testing centres” such that candidates can write the tests close to home are other important recommendations of HLCE that will directly impact students.

Divided into two phases, the NTA panel report includes several points on restructuring of the NTA itself as well as ideas on long-term reforms like “making the UG level admission simple and uniform” and moving towards “computer adaptive testing”. The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) are computer adaptive tests.

The report of the HLCE, Reformation of National Common Entrance Testing in India, was finally placed in the public domain by the ministry of education on Tuesday.

The review of the functioning of the National Testing Agency was prompted by widespread allegations of paper-leak in the entrance exam for undergraduate medicine, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET UG), earlier this year.

The committee also further recommends that the government sets up a High-Powered Steering Committee to monitor the implementation of these recommendations.

NTA Report: Multi-session testing, mobile testing centres

As a major recommendation on policy intervention in the testing process, the high-level committee recommends multi-session testing.

“Multiple session testing spread over typically a few days to a couple of weeks could be adopted, especially when registered participants exceed say, 2 lakh. Normalisation Process is integral to multi-session testing. This is a statistical process. The parameters and methodology of normalisation should be well established,and communicated transparently for each test,” states the recommendation.

The committee also recommends that every district in the country (except very thinly populated ones) must have at least one exam centre that can conduct tests in various modes, including paper-and-pencil test (PPT), computer-based test CBT), computer-assisted secure PPT (CPPT) and others, based on the demand.

It also mentions ‘mobile testing centres’ for aspirants from rural, remote, and thinly-populated areas such as North-East, Northern Himalayan States, Andaman Nicobar Islands and others. It even suggests setting up of five-10 single test centres (STC) on PPP mode.

In case of NEET, the medical exam which was shrouded with allegations of leak this year, the HLCE talks about “multi-stage testing”. For another major exam – the CUET UG – the panel stressed on the need for rationalising the subject choices into compact clusters of related subject streams.

As of now, the exam has a multitude of subject streams. The University Grants Commission’s draft guidelines on the CUET exam, released recently, has spoken about reducing the number of subjects to 37.

On exam centre allocation policy, the committee states that ideally candidates should get a choice of testing centre in their district of residence. This will involve setting up CBT centres in government schools, universities and institutes. The panel recommends detecting aberrations and strange patterns of choices of testing centres through data analytics.

“All centres in case of CBT should be sanitised by the third party and rechecked by the NIC team and NTA representative. This is a sensitive step as several malpractices have been found due to the nexus of the workforce responsible for sanitisation,” the report added.

Also read Use KVs, JNVs as NEET, JEE Main exam centres: High Level Committee on NTA

NTA Exam Security: Biometrics-based ‘DIGI Exam’, CCTV

The high-level committee recommendations for the NTA talks about “DIGI Exam” which essentially means authentication at the stages of application, test, admission or induction and study or work.

“The primary data identifying the candidate should be made as a one-time entry. The NTA should ensure the candidate uploads essential and optional documentary proof of his/her identity. Verify the admit card details, along with the candidate’s identity, with any one of the Government-issued ID proofs. Record biometric data at the testing centre before the commencement of the exam. Continuous capture of all candidates through CCTV coverage throughout the test duration and cloud storage of data. Post exam AI based analysis of candidates photo in the application form, testing centre, CCTV coverage extracted image from the footage after every 15 minutes interval,” is how the functioning of Digi Exam has been enumerated.

The HLCE also proposes post-examination data analysis by a third party. The analysis reports may be used for centre selection. It also recommends developing an online portal to report cases of collusions/malpractice/cheating.

NTA question paper pattern changes

For the exam to be conducted on PPT, the HLCE has suggested setting more than three question papers – the NTA could use two or three of them while the rest could be used as backup. It also recommends using lengthy codes for different sets instead of A,B,C.

It also stresses on detailed verification of the printing press and recommends getting into institutional agreement with “India Posts” for transportation of the papers. It has advised testing centres to frisk the staff along with the candidates.

To eliminate potential breaches during printing, storage and transportation of PPT, the committee recommends a hybrid process. “The process of CBT will be adopted till the encrypted question papers are delivered to the confidential servers of the testing centres. The printing of question papers will be done at the testing centres with due confidentiality using high speed printers. Pilot testing of this process should be undertaken before its operational induction,” states the recommendation.

This measure was experimented with by the Central Board of Secondary Education in 2017 during the board exam, when there were allegations of paper leak. But it was later withdrawn and replaced by a different system.

“A variant of this could be a model where delivery of questions can be done through CBT model to each candidate and OMR sheet can be used for answer collection. This model will help reduce vulnerability of both CBT and PPT,” it added.

On setting of question papers, the committee recommends not repeating questions and having those with “uncontested answers”. “None of the question paper setting/vetting team will be required to bring their own books/resources. The paper setting team prepares question papers for each session. In case of multiple sessions, separate teams set the required number sets for each session,” it stated.

It also talks about frequent changes in the exam pattern to “weaken the stronghold of robotic practices in coaching centres”, “provide a surprise element to students to enjoy creativity”.

NTA Restructuring: More staff, defined roles

The HLCE recommends large-scale restructuring of the NTA itself to include more top-level officials, in-house subject experts and infrastructure, and has proposed 12 sets of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for conducting exams. It has also developed an SOP for pre-examination preparation, especially Confidential Operations (CONOPs).

The reports says the NTA director general may be assisted by two additional DGs and directors; that the governing body should have three sub-committees addressing issues of audit and ethics, staffing and “stakeholder relationships”. The NTA functions have been organised into 10 “verticals”.

The committee suggests that the NTA boost its own bench of experts and officials, apart from coordinating with bodies with both space in infrastructure such as the centrally-run government schools like the Kendriya Vidyalayas (KV) and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNV).

“NTA needs to be manned with internal domain-specific human resources and a leadership team with domain knowledge, proven experience and skill sets who should take charge of the testing process in future,” the report states.

The committee also stresses that NTA should primarily conduct college entrance examinations, not recruitment ones.

“Enhancing its scope for other examinations may be considered after the capacity of NTA is augmented. Each of the testing indenting agencies such as UGC, CSIR should work with NTA over the entire life cycle of testing, as their knowledge partner and examination-ethics partner for their intended test,” it adds.

The committee states that the testing agency must have a Grievance Reporting and Redressal Cell (GRRC) that stakeholders could approach.

“The cell must be equipped with AI/ML-based technology power to quickly assess and provide a response to the stakeholder query/complaint within a reasonable time frame.Grievances that require deeper analyses must be referred to a committee that will address the queries promptly and within a specified timeframe,” it added.

Along with grievance redressal, NTA will also be required to set up a mental health cell in the form of tele-helpline.

Long-term NTA Reforms: MCQs ‘may not serve purpose’

With every university following different rules for admission, the committee recommends keeping the UG level simple and uniform and points out that in the age of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI-ML), “solving MCQ-based testing may not serve the intended purpose”.

On admissions, the panel says: “The examination and admission coordinating institutes and institutions admitting candidates should discuss and evolve simpler and uniform eligibility and admission criteria. (e.g., in terms of number of stages for the test, no of attempts, age limit, cut-off for higher secondary marks, multi-session tests, number of times the test is conducted in a year, test syllabus, and mode of testing).”

Talking about computer adaptive testing, the HLCE talks about bringing learner-level centric, adaptive test paper models, so that the examination process evaluates the stakeholders according to “what they know” and rank orders their performance.

It states that there should be concerted efforts to bring home the concept of “adaptive testing” from the internal examinations at the high school level onwards itself.

Highlighting further the need of regular upgradation of core digital and physical infrastructure, it recommends that NTA looks into indigenous models of CBT exams in collaboration with the state government.

The HCLE studied the ETS methodology of testing. But in regard to the Indian context, it states, “The Committee felt that the ETS model per se cannot be adopted in the Indian examination context, considering the demographic and social variations in the candidates appearing for the examinations.”

However, recommends having meaningful MoUs with ETS for using their expertise in the conduct of global-level examinations and global-level partners.