Centre reveals new NTA reforms before Supreme Court: New office, new security, new structure
In an additional affidavit filed before the Supreme Court in the batch of petitions concerning the reforms taken in the functioning of the National Testing Agency, the Union Ministry said that the agency is being strengthened through a functional vertical structure. Senior government officers are being appointed and specialised professional positions are being created as a part of the ongoing reforms. The Union Ministry said, the Union Ministry of Education said, a total of 14 officers, including a joint secretary, four directors, joint director, two deputy secretaries, two under secretaries, two section officers and two assistant officers, were posted to the examination body in August 2026.
The affidavit was filed in compliance with the Supreme Court’s order directing the Ministry of Education to place on record the details of the processes being taken, details of the processes followed for the implementation of the recommendation by the high-level committee of experts headed by the former ISRO chief K. Radhakrishnan. The Centre asserted that the NTA is being restructured into a functional vertical structure to enable domain-specific capability building and replacing the earlier system in which personnel were deployed into the exam-wise verticals.
“The functional-vertical structure enables domain-specific capability-building within each core area of competence, whereas in the earlier structure, the human resources of NTA were deployed into specific exam-wise verticals,” the affidavit stated.
As per the reports submitted by the Centre, the NTA’s apex leadership is now headed by an officer of the rank of Secretary to the Government of India, serving as its Director General. The centre further added that the NTA’s senior leadership now draws officers from multiple services, including IAS, IPS, IRS and ISS, among others. The affidavit further highlighted that domain specialists are being recruited from the open market in areas of technology, human resource, assessment research and development, test centres, candidate experience, information security, test security and vigilance.
“The full new institutional establishment of the National Testing Agency, covering the entirety of the Government cadre, and the professional cadre required for the strengthened mandate, is presently under active consideration and will be operationalised after due consideration of the final recommendations received from the HPTF,” it said.
It further went on to inform that the high-powered task force constituted in July 7 under the chairmanship of former UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani has commenced its work and held discussions with stakeholders, including the Director General and Department of Higher Education, to oversee the implementations of the HLC recommendations.
The HELC had made 101 recommendations covering reforms in national common entrance test, long-term institutional reforms, digital education testing and periodic monitoring by the Ministry of Education.