Education Minister Pralhad Joshi Orders NTA to Audit All Exam Processes

Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi on Monday directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to conduct a thorough audit of all its examination processes and submit a corrective action report. The directive came during a meeting with NTA officials, a day after the agency announced the re-conduct of UGC-NET papers for Sociology, Commerce, and English.

During the meeting, officials briefed Mr. Joshi on the steps taken to reform the education system, particularly in the wake of recent examination irregularities. The Minister was informed that the NTA has removed more than 50 staff members and has advertised for 10 new professional leadership positions, including Chief Technology Officer, Chief Finance Officer, Chief Information Security Officer, General Manager for Test Security, and General Manager for Research and Development and Psychometrics.

Mr. Joshi emphasised that strict compliance with established examination protocols must be ensured. He directed a complete overhaul of the confidential operations architecture. This revamp includes setting up secluded rooms, implementing air-gapped systems, and introducing device-deposit protocols for personnel handling confidential information related to question paper setting.

Air-gapped systems are computers or networks that are physically and wirelessly isolated from unsecured networks such as the internet. They have no Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or wired connections, making remote cyberattacks nearly impossible. Such systems are commonly used in nuclear power plants, electric grids, military networks, and financial systems.

The re-conduct of the three UGC-NET papers marks the second instance this year where the NTA has had to hold examinations again due to errors. Earlier, the NEET-UG examination was cancelled after a paper leak and subsequently re-held. That incident led to youth-led protests at Jantar Mantar and culminated in the resignation of the then Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

An NTA official said that domain specialists from the private sector are being brought in for cyber-security, psychometrics, question-paper design, and other specialised areas. “We are putting in place checks and balances around paper-setting protocols. Earlier, the administrative staff of NTA was completely delinked from experts who were setting papers. There were multiple people involved including item writers, moderators, convenors and translators,” the official said.

The official added that CBI investigations have pointed out gaps where the experts were the ones leaking the papers. In its NEET-UG 2026 paper leak chargesheet, the CBI noted that paper-setters for Biology, Chemistry, and Physics had full access to questions, which they leaked. They were not frisked when entering or exiting restricted confidential zones, and the NTA facility lacked a dedicated live CCTV monitoring control room.

“We are taking steps to put corrective measures in place to address these issues,” another NTA official said. The Ministry of Education has not released an official statement on the meeting, but sources confirmed that the Minister sought a detailed report on the corrective actions and an audit of all examination processes to prevent future lapses.