Congress Leader Jairam Ramesh Slams NTA For Prioritising Profits Over Students' Future

Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh on Sunday slammed the Centre for jeopardizing the "future of millions of India's youths" and making the National Testing Agency "a mere revenue-raising exercise."

Citing an answer to the Rajya Sabha by the Union MoS for Education Sukanta Majumdar during the ongoing Budget session of Parliament, the Congress leader claimed the government testing agency has not used fee income to build the agency's capabilities to conduct tests itself, or to strengthen regulatory and monitoring capabilities for its vendors.

The Union Minister, in his reply to a question on revenue generated by the agency, said that the NTA collected an estimated Rs 3,512.98 crore while it spent Rs 3,064.77 crore on the conduct of examinations - it, therefore, netted a surplus of Rs 448 crores in the last six years.

"The future of millions of India's youths has ultimately become a mere revenue-raising exercise for the non-biological PM's Government," Jairam Ramesh targetted Narendra Modi-led central government in an X post.

"The National Testing Agency (NTA) is at the very heart of the NEET scandal. It is a body of the Education Ministry whose only purpose is to function via outsourcing to private vendors. Not only do these vendors very often have dubious credentials but the NTA itself is headed by a person who presided over the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission, which has seen mega-scams," Jairam Ramesh added in his X post.

The Neet UG 2024 examination, held on 5 May has been embroiled in controversy following allegations of paper leaks, irregularities, and time losses during the exam.

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (UG) was held for more than 24 lakh candidates at 4750 different Centres located in 571 Cities throughout the country including 14 Cities outside India on 05 May 2024 (Sunday). The re-examination of the Neet (UG) 2024 was conducted on 23 June 2024 for 1563 candidates who had experienced time loss during the originally scheduled examination on 05 May 2024.

Pronouncing a detailed judgement on pleas seeking cancellation of NEET-UG 2024 over allegations of paper leak and malpractices, the Supreme Court earlier this week asked the Central government to completely restructure the exam process.

Aspirants had approached the top court and raised the issue of leakage of question paper, awarding compensatory marks and anomaly in the question of Neet-UG.

Neet-UG examination, conducted by NTA, is the pathway for admissions into MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.

NTA was established in the year 2018. Since its inception, NTA has conducted over 240 examinations involving over 5.4 crores candidates. NTA is self-supporting through the examination fee collected.

The minister, in his written reply to the Parliament, said considering the sensitivity involved in competitive examinations, various operational and security measures are undertaken for their smooth and fair conduct. Such measures involve engagement of specialised/experienced agencies for providing services like capturing of Biometric, frisking, CCTV surveillance, AI analytics with a view to identify any potential impersonation, and exam delivery.

"NTA has been set up as a self-sustained organisation, headed by Director General, who is appointed by Central Government under the Central Staffing Scheme. In addition, the number of employees working on deputation in NTA are 22 at present. The number of contractual employees is 39 and outsourced staff/ employees are 132. 1 (one) employee is absorbed in NTA from his parent Department. From amongst the employees working on deputation, the percentage of women is 17.3 per cent and that of SCs is 13 per cent," said the minister. (ANI)