NTA justifies re-exam decision, says aimed at correcting errors in students’ interest

The National Testing Agency (NTA) has defended its decision to conduct fresh examinations for three UGC-NET subjects after errors in the question papers triggered criticism of its examination and quality-control processes.

The agency announced on Sunday that the English, Commerce and Sociology papers would be conducted again after factual, typographical and translation errors were detected. Several questions had also reportedly been repeated from previous examinations, raising questions about how papers containing such defects were prepared, reviewed and approved.

The English and Commerce retests have been scheduled for 9 September, while the Sociology paper will be held on 10 September.

NTA officials speaking to IANS sought to portray the decision as evidence of accountability, arguing that the NTA’s responsibility extended beyond conducting error-free examinations to acknowledging and correcting problems. However, the need for retests has further inconvenienced candidates, who must bear the consequences of lapses for which they were not responsible.

The NTA reviewed the affected papers and consulted subject experts before concluding that their defects were too extensive to be addressed through the usual challenge process, these officials said. Although candidates will not be charged an additional fee and subject-wise allocations will remain unchanged, the fresh examinations will require them to prepare and appear again.

Defending the agency, NTA officials cited by IANS said the scale of the examinations conducted between June and July. The NTA administered UGC-NET, CSIR-NET and ICAR’s AIEEA-PG and AICE-PhD examinations across 184 subjects, involving 24,700 questions.

The figures, however, do little to address concerns over why basic errors escaped multiple stages of paper-setting, moderation, translation and approval.

More than 10 lakh candidates registered for the examinations, of whom nearly eight lakh appeared.

Each question must go through several stages, including preparation, moderation, translation, typesetting, administration and evaluation, before being assessed according to a common standard, sources said.

They added that no problems were detected in the overwhelming majority of papers. Answer keys were released on Sunday for 84 UGC-NET subjects, all five CSIR-NET subjects and 92 ICAR subjects — accounting for 181 of the 184 subjects covered.

The answer keys for English, Commerce and Sociology were withheld while the NTA considered corrective measures.

According to sources, retaining papers with errors or a large number of repeated questions could disadvantage candidates who had prepared independently on merit compared with those familiar with papers from previous examination cycles.

The decision to hold the tests again was therefore taken to protect the interests of “honest, hard-working” candidates and ensure a fair assessment, they said.

The NTA is also reviewing its internal procedures for preparing, moderating, translating and composing question papers to prevent similar errors at the source. Steps will additionally be taken to determine responsibility for the lapses, sources said.

They argued that the credibility of an examination agency operating at such a scale depended on its willingness to detect problems, accept them and implement corrective action, even when doing so was difficult.

The NTA remains committed to establishing a fair, accurate and error-free examination system, they added.

With IANS inputs