NTA reforms: Govt panel suggest no permanent staffing but longer tenure for executives, experts
New Delhi, Dec 18 (PTI) The Centre’s high-level panel on exam reforms has advised against permanent staffing in the National Testing Agency (NTA), instead recommending longer tenure for executives and domain experts with attractive service conditions.
Under fire over alleged irregularities in the conduct of medical entrance exam NEET-UG and PhD entrance NET, the government set up the panel in July to study the functioning of the NTA.
The Opposition had claimed that NTA operates with fewer than 25 permanent employees and somehow it conducts over two dozen major exams, including the highly competitive NEET-UG.
In its report, the panel, headed by former ISRO Chief R Radhakrishnan, has said, “It is prudent to avoid permanence while staffing NTA. Still continuity and institutional memory must be maintained by longer tenure of executives and domain experts drawn through central staffing scheme or from academic or specialised organisations.”
“To attract competent and willing persons to relocate to NTA, attractive service conditions may be devised (special pay/higher grade on deputation, performance-related incentives or schemes, waiver of age limit),” it added.
