As part of a massive overhaul, the National Testing Agency (NTA) mass sacked up to 600 Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) after investigations revealed that very NTA empanelled experts who set the NEET-UG question papers were involved in leaking the questions.
Investigation by the Central Bureau of Intelligence (CBI) revealed that these SMEs who had early access to question banks were supplying confidential material to coaching networks.
Students taking exams like NEET-UG and UGC-NET were discontent with repeated flaws in drafting questions and errors in translating questions across languages.
NTA’s SMEs were criticised for setting questions that had multiple correct options. In other cases, the answer keys were incorrect.
Poor translation left those who wrote their answer papers in languages other than English at a disadvantage because the questions and answer options could not be comprehended properly.
Eyebrows were also raised during CBI investigations and following court hearings about question papers that lacked originality and SMEs relying on standard coaching test-series questions. This created doubts about how rigorous was the approach taken by SMEs who were question paper setters.
On investigating the backgrounds of these SMEs, it was found that they were connected directly or indirectly to test-prep platforms and coaching classes having a commercial bent.
It was also discovered that NTA’s approach of empanelling SMEs was lax. For instance, there was no ‘cooling-off period,’ between the NTA empanelment and cutting ties from a previous private coaching employer.
To fix these gaping loopholes, NTA has now issued a fresh call for onboarding SMEs. The agency has said that they will vet them across four stages.
The first stage will involve checking the identity details and credentials of the SME who has applied to be a part of the NTA panel, a no objection certificate from the current employer.
These SMEs will be subjected to an academic and expert screening to then evaluate their research and experience in question-setting.
Thirdly, their integrity declarations will be verified, and it will be checked whether they are independent of any commercial connections. Lastly, they will be empanelled for three years after they provide a legal undertaking, which involves signing non-disclosure agreements. Any leak or violation of security protocols will carry criminal liability.
NTA has also stated that two years after their last NTA assignment, these SMEs cannot have any commercial connects with coaching classes.
Apart from the vetting of the SMEs, the question papers set by these SMEs will also go through four levels of filtering to rule out any errors in facts or translation.
While NTA’s proposal for vetting the SMEs which has come too little too late looks perfect on paper, empanelling up to 600 SMEs at one go is no mean feat. This especially after the agency has been tainted with back-to-back controversies of two high-profile paper leaks, both concerning NEET-UG exams in 2024 and 2026. NTA has fixed the last date for experts wishing to be empanelled as SMEs to apply as October 9. Considering NTA’s track record of hiring ‘compromised’ SMEs, the future prospect of gullible and self-proclaimed experts applying to try their hand at question paper setting cannot be discounted.
The agency has a massive task confronting it: weeding out the bad apples that can compromise its already failing integrity. Only time will tell if the NTA succeeds at this bid.