NEW DELHI: A parliamentary panel has suggested that the National Testing Agency (NTA) should consider a two-stage exam process for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) Undergraduate (UG) and other big tests.
The Parliamentary Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, has noted that the trust in the examinations conducted by the NTA is a matter of social justice and national integrity, a PTI report said.
In a detailed report the committee said: “The education department may introduce appropriate parliamentary framework that ensures NTA’s accountability to Parliament.”
The panel noted that, contrary to the Civil Services Examination that follows a multi-stage format for filtration of candidates, the NEET UG remains a single-stage test, covering MBBS, BDS, nursing, and AYUSH admissions together handling over 22 lakh students.
“The Committee is of the view that NTA should examine the feasibility of a two-stage format for its large examinations, such as having a common prelims examination for all medical streams while conducting specialised mains stage for specific courses, so that a candidate seeking nursing or AYUSH is tested and ranked apart from one seeking admission to MBBS, reducing avoidable competition,” the panel suggested.
The committee, while recognising NTA’s past efforts at improvement, said the cancellation of NEET (UG) 2026 implies that further improvement is necessary.
“Organised networks that profit from exam fraud are adaptive and resourceful, and will always seek the weakest link in the chain. The NTA therefore needs adequate staff, robust security protocols, clear accountability mechanisms, and digitalisation of operations and examinations to ensure that it stays ahead of any challenges,” the panel observed.
Age limit
Earlier, the Committee was apprised that currently the NEET (UG) has no limit on how many times a candidate can attempt it, and no real upper age limit either.
“The Committee recommends that the Ministry explore, alongside the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and all other relevant stakeholders, possibilities of reasonable age limits and reasonable attempt limits to all major examinations, including the NEET-UG. The Committee notes that an exception to this rule may be made only for the UGC-NET,” it said.
‘Allow latecomers’
According to the report, the committee recommended a broad base of question banks and suggested that students who arrive later at exam centres be allowed to sit for the test after recording an undertaking.
The Committee also recommended that NTA should create and maintain a National Registry of blacklisted examination vendors.
It further recommended that the NTA must rely on bona fide experts from our most renowned educational institutions including IITs, AIIMSs, IIMs to develop its question banks and for translation.