National Testing Agency gets green light from Centre

The Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday approved the creation of National Testing Agency (NTA).

NTA, a single agency to conduct all entrance exams, will relieve the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and others from the responsibility of conducting entrance examinations.

Terming the Centre's decision historic and a much-needed education reform, Human Resource Development minister Prakash Javadekar took to Twitter to say, "NTA will bring in high reliability, standardised assessing aptitude and conduct of tamper-proof exams."

"Cabinet approves creation of National Testing Agency, a single agency to conduct all entrance exams for HE institutions. With experts on board, it will bring in high reliability, standardised assessing aptitude & conduct of tamper-proof exams. Setting up of National Testing Agency is a historic decision and a much needed education Reform," the minister said.

"National Testing Agency will take off the burden of conducting entrance exams from CBSE," he added.

At present, CBSE conducts nine type of entrance examination including CTET(Central Teacher Eligibility Test), UGC NET(UGC's National Eligibility Test), JEE(Joint Engineering Entrance) Mains, JNV(Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas), in which around 70 lakhs students appear every year.

The NTA will be provided a one-time grant of Rs 25 crores by the central government to start its operation in the first year. Thereafter, it is to be financially self-sustainable.