National Testing Agency exam count dropped by over 50% in 2024; lowest in 5 years

NEW DELHI: The National Testing Agency (NTA), the premier examination body in the country, conducted only 29 exams in 2024, less than half the number of exams it conducted in the previous year, the education ministry said in parliament on Monday. This is also the lowest number of exams conducted by the agency since 2019.

NTA, which was established in 2017, conducts major entrance examinations such as the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medicine; the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main for engineering, and the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for general college programmes in central universities.

In 2024, NTA was rocked by allegations of paper leaks and the agency had postponed or annulled major exams such as the CUET PG and the University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test (UGC NET). The NTA has also irked school staff who serve as exam functionaries by delaying payments for the exams they organised.

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The allegations led to a cabinet investigation after which the former NTA director general Subodh Kumar Singh was put on “compulsory wait” and the charges transferred to current director general Pradeep Singh Kharola.

NTA Exams: The decline

According to the data submitted by the education ministry in parliament, NTA conducted only 29 exams in 2024 which were attended by more than 85 lakh students. For comparison, in 2023, 1.3 crore students wrote 66 exams held by the agency.

National Test Agency: Drop in tests

In 2024, the NTA conducted the lowest number of exams since 2019 when the agency managed only 23 exams. But this was two years into its inception, when the agency was slowly expanding its reach and overseeing more and more exams, including NEET UG. Since 2019, the agency has rapidly increased the number of exams under its management. In 2020, it conducted 35 exams which was increased to 45 in 2021.

In 2023, NTA conducted the most number of exams in its history with 66 exams. These 66 exams included 57 computer-based tests (CBT), six pen and paper tests, and three English short-hand tests.

In 2024, NTA only conducted 12 CBTs. It also held four hybrid exams which included CBT plus pen-and-paper mode, three pen-and-paper exam; seven exams with pen-and-paper plus interview; two English short-hand tests, and one remote-proctored test. The CUET UG for college admissions was held in both CBT and pen-and-paper mode but for the forthcoming year, the UGC has said, the CUET exam will be CBT-only and involve other reforms.