The wholesale sacking of people at the National Testing Agency (NTA), the announcement of the creation of four senior specialised positions — covering testing, test network management, cybersecurity, and vigilance — and the creation of a high-powered task force headed by Nandan Nilekani is, for starters, admission that the organisation expected to conduct many kinds of college admission tests isn’t equipped to do so. It is also an indication that things are now moving in the right direction — although much will depend on the kind of people the agency is able to attract for the positions it hopes to fill.
Given the scale of the tests conducted by NTA — a few million students appear for it every year — logistics and security (including cybersecurity) present an additional layer of complexity. (ANI)
That the Union government decided to centralise testing without having the ability to do so, and in the face of opposition from some states, makes this a political issue — which will be raised time and again — but the purge at the agency, and the resignation of the Union education minister should satisfy those keen on punitive action.
The more important aspect is remedial action, and while it may have done so under duress, the government’s efforts to restructure NTA show that it has belatedly recognised that testing — all aspects of it — is a specialised process requiring specialised skills. At its very core, a test of the kind NTA conducts — the undergraduate edition of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, for instance, for admission to medical colleges — should be a fair, and statistically sound assessment of an individual’s abilities. Given the scale of the tests conducted by NTA — a few million students appear for it every year — logistics and security (including cybersecurity) present an additional layer of complexity. The changes announced on Friday go some way towards addressing these; and the composition of the task force, some more.
Where the government is silent on is the issue of governance. It may be a good idea to benchmark NTA’s current governance norms against those of similar bodies around the world — including the US College Board, a non-profit that is not owned by the State, but governed by members, basically educational institutions. Members elect trustees, and the board of trustees appoints the CEO and the executive team, which runs several kinds of tests, offering them many times a year. In India, where many educational institutions are run by the Centre or states, a pragmatic solution may be a Goods and Services Tax Council kind of body with representation from states, and also from private universities.
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