To meet operational requirements, the NTA has relied extensively on contractual and outsourced personnel
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The government has identified a range of issues related to the functioning of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and has tasked officials with resolving them “within a month”, sources said on Friday.This comes amid continued scrutiny of the examination body’s functioning following controversies surrounding national entrance examinations. On May 3 the NEET UG exam for over 2.27 million students was cancelled on May 12 after investigations revealed a major overlap between actual question papers and pre-circulated “guess papers” pointing to insider leak.On July 22, the Ministry of Education in Lok Sabha revealed that the agency which conducts some of India’s biggest entrance examinations including NEET and CUET, is functioning with fewer than half of its sanctioned permanent positions filled, according to information shared by the Ministry of Education in the Lok Sabha.Replying to a question in Parliament, Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar said the NTA has 55 sanctioned permanent posts, of which only 24 are currently filled. The remaining 31 posts are vacant, indicating a vacancy rate of over 56 per cent.The NTA was established in 2018 as an autonomous body to conduct entrance examinations for higher educational institutions. The ministry said its permanent positions are filled through deputation.The government informed Parliament that NTA originally had 39 permanent posts, with an additional 16 senior-level positions, eight Directors and eight Joint Directors, created recently under the Central Staffing Scheme to strengthen the agency.The present permanent workforce includes Director General, Joint Secretaries, Directors (Levels 13 and 14), Joint Directors/Research Scientists, Deputy Directors and Assistant Directors, Senior Superintendents.To meet operational requirements, the NTA has relied extensively on contractual and outsourced personnel. According to the ministry, the agency currently employs 73 contractual personnel, including one general manager (communication), one senior advisor, three advisors, five senior consultants, 44 consultants, one senior software developer, one office assistant and 17 young professionals.124 outsourced personnel, including data analysts, consultants, junior consultants, legal associates, housekeeping staff and other support personnel.The government also said that for examinations, the NTA engages thousands of field-level functionaries, including observers, city coordinators, centre supervisors, and members of State and District Level Coordination Committees, in coordination with state governments, Union Territories, centrally funded institutions, Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas.The ministry said that since its inception in 2018, the NTA has conducted more than 270 examinations, covering over 6.6 crore candidate registrations. In 2026 alone, the agency has so far conducted 12 examinations with more than 65 lakh candidate registrations.The government did not provide examination-wise fee collection or expenditure but shared NTA’s overall income and expenditure statements.The figures showed that the NTA’s income has more than doubled between 2019-20 and 2023-24, while expenditure has also risen substantially during the same period. The figures indicated a substantial expansion in financial operations from 2022–23 onwards. While income more than doubled over the last two years, expenditure grew even faster, reaching over ₹1,000 crore in 2023–24.Published on July 24, 2026
