During the Union Cabinet meeting held on November 10, 2017,s Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the establishment of National Testing Agency (NTA). NTA, will the authoritative body that will be conducting all the national level entrance examination from 2019 which are currently conducted and managed by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). It is reported that NTA will gradually conduct all the national level entrance examination.

According to the officials, NTA will be benefiting more than 4 million aspirants appearing in the different entrance examination and it will be conducting the examinations which are currently organized by AICTE, IITs, IIMs and other examination conducting bodies. This is how it will reduce the pressure on these organizations and will help them to focus on their core job.

Core Features

NTA will be conducting online entrance examination twice a year. This will give more opportunity to the aspirants and will increase the probability of their success. Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) conducts five major high education entrance examination including JEE Main for engineering aspirants and to give admission to IITs and leading engineering institutions, NEET-UG (National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test) for the medical aspirants, National Eligibility Test (NET) on the behalf of UGC for the recruitment of professors, Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) for the selection of teachers for state-level government schools, and entrance test for Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs). From 2019 onwards, NTA will be conducting all these entrance examinations twice a year in online mode.

NTA has been introduced with the aim of providing more opportunities to the aspirants and will be establishing examination centers at sub-district/ district level for the convenience of rural students and will also be providing hands-on training to the students.

What is NTA?

The concept of NTA was first introduced during Union Budget 2017-18 by the Prime Minister. NTA will be registered under the Indian Society Registration Act, 1860 as an autonomous and self-sustaining testing body. The Center will provide Rs. 25 Crore to initiate its operation. It will be chaired by a prominent educationist appointed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, will have a CEO appointed by the Center who will be acting as a director general and will have a board of governors including members from various institutions. A team of nine academicians and experts will be appointed to assist the Director General of NTA.