A parliamentary committee has called for a decisive shift back to pen-and-paper testing after a year marked by multiple exam failures under the National Testing Agency (NTA), warning that public confidence in national entrance tests has been severely shaken.

In its latest report, the Standing Committee on Education chaired by Congress MP Digvijaya Singh said the NTA must rethink its reliance on computer-based tests (CBTs), strengthen security protocols and study the long-standing exam models of the CBSE and UPSC, both of which have remained largely free of major breaches.

A year of exam setbacks

Of the 14 competitive exams held by the NTA in 2024, at least five ran into major trouble. UGC-NET, CSIR-NET and NEET-PG had to be postponed, NEET-UG saw instances of paper leaks, and CUET UG/PG results were delayed. The issues continued into 2025, with 12 questions withdrawn from JEE Main January 2025 due to errors in the final answer key.

“These instances, otherwise fully avoidable, must not occur in future,” the committee warned, adding that repeated disruptions have eroded trust among lakhs of aspirants.

Pen-and-paper gains favour amid CBT risks

While acknowledging that pen-and-paper exams carry leak risks and CBTs can face sophisticated hacking, the panel said traditional paper formats have proven more dependable, pointing to the integrity record of CBSE and UPSC exams. It recommended that if CBTs continue, they should be held only in government or government-controlled centres—not private facilities.

Ban blacklisted firms, tighten procurement

The panel expressed alarm that firms previously blacklisted for irregularities were still involved in exam-related work. It urged the NTA and states to ban such entities outright and compile a nationwide blacklist to prevent them from securing future contracts.

Surplus funds must strengthen NTA systems

The report revealed that the NTA generated a surplus of ₹448 crore over six years, with earnings of ₹3,512.98 crore against spending of ₹3,064.77 crore. The committee said this corpus should be used to build in-house exam-conducting capacity and strengthen oversight of external vendors.