Safety Personnel outdoors the NTA Workplace in Okhla in New Delhi on August 17, 2026.
| Picture Credit score: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap
A day after the Union Training Ministry sought a detailed report from the National Testing Agency (NTA) on reforming the general system, NTA officers mentioned that 600 specialists from its examination workforce have been eliminated and new specialists onboarded as a part of a revamp.
In a gathering with NTA officers on August 17, Union Training Minister Prahlad Joshi had directed that each one needed safety and associated infrastructural amenities ought to be put in place for the graceful conduct of examinations.
“We’re revamping the examination workforce by eradicating 600 specialists and onboarding new specialists. A four-tier query paper checking system might be put in place to strengthen the scrutiny of examination papers,” a senior NTA official mentioned.
The NTA mentioned that 20 to 25 new officers might be inducted over the following two to 3 weeks, whereas NTA places of work might be swiftly shifted to their new premises, the place safety might be bolstered with the help of Central Industrial Safety Pressure (CISF) groups.
Operational overhaul
The revamp comes after the NTA’s announcement earlier this week that it would conduct a re-exam for the UGC-NET exams in Sociology, Commerce, and English, following complaints of errors in query papers. This was the NTA’s second main lapse this 12 months after a paper leak compelled the cancellation of the NEET-UG exam earlier this summer season.
The Training Ministry has directed the NTA to conduct an intensive audit of all examination processes and submit a report on corrective motion, officers mentioned. Mr. Joshi had additionally directed that strict compliance to the established examination protocols should be enforced.
Sources mentioned {that a} full overhaul of the Confidential Operations (CONOPS) structure was mentioned. This would come with organising secluded rooms, air-gapped techniques, and device-deposit protocols for individuals dealing with confidential info relating to question-paper setting.
Air-gapped techniques are computer systems or networks that are bodily and wirelessly remoted from unsecured networks just like the web. The techniques don’t have any wi-fi, bluetooth, or wired connections, which make distant cyberattacks practically not possible.
New area specialists
Officers within the assembly additionally mentioned that greater than fifty staffers had been faraway from the NTA. Ten new skilled management positions — together with Chief Know-how Officer, Chief Finance Officer, Chief Data Safety Officer, and Common Managers for Take a look at Safety, Analysis and Growth, and Psychometrics — have been marketed, and are being onboarded.
“Area specialists are being introduced in from the non-public sector for cyber safety, psychometrics, question-paper design, and different specialised areas,” officers mentioned.
In its chargesheet on the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak, the Central Bureau of Investigation had identified that specialists who set papers for Biology, Chemistry, and Physics had full entry to the questions, which they then leaked. These specialists confronted no bodily checking or frisking when coming into or exiting restricted confidential zones, whereas the NTA facility lacked a devoted reside CCTV monitoring management room.
“We’re taking steps to place corrective steps in place to handle these points,” NTA officers mentioned.
Printed – August 19, 2026 12:12 am IST
