“Only job of NTA appears to be to outsource…”: Congress and TMC Demand Greater Transparency from National Testing Agency

Congress on Saturday took a swipe at the National Testing Agency (NTA) for what they allege is its sole focus on outsourcing. This criticism came after TMC MP Sagarika Ghose raised concerns about the limited information available about the agency on its website. This comes at a time when the NTA is embroiled in controversies owing to issues such as paper leaks and irregularities in various entrance examinations.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh expressed his discontentment by taking to the social media platform “X”. “The only job of NTA appears to be to outsource. Its Chairman has a very dubious record as Chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission,” said Ramesh.

Trinamool Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose on Friday wrote to Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, questioning why the NTA, which oversees 17 major examinations including the NEET, provides “so little information about itself” on its official website.

In addition, Ghose criticized the NTA’s transparency, highlighting that only two landline numbers are available across all its offices and that only three names of the governing body are listed online. She emphasized the importance of trust in examinations, stating, “Examinations must be, above all, totally trustworthy and the agency that conducts them must be above all suspicion. Students should not have to approach the courts for redress and every examination conducted by the NTA should not be plagued by doubt and uncertainty.”

The Trinamool Congress MP urged the Union Education Minister to address these issues by updating the NTA website to include the names and qualifications of all board members and officials. She also requested that the annual reports and audited accounts of the NTA be made accessible online. “Such steps would go a long way in establishing the trustworthiness of the NTA in the eyes of the public,” Ghose concluded.​