India's high-stakes exam system faces a crisis of trust

India's high‑stakes exam system faces a crisis of trust The National Testing Agency (NTA) was launched in 2017 under the national education ministry to deliver fair, transparent and standardised examinations after years of paper leaks, administrative errors and cheating allegations. Over the following years the agency assumed responsibility for many of the country’s largest competitive tests, including medical and engineering entrance exams, university admissions and eligibility assessments for teaching and research. Eight years later the body created to restore confidence in India’s examinations is itself confronting a credibility crisis. In June more than two million students were required to retake a major medical entrance test after the question paper was leaked. The fallout sparked weeks of youth‑led protests that culminated in the resignation of the federal education minister. In response the government appointed a high‑level task force headed by tech entrepreneur Nandan Nilekani to recommend reforms and rebuild trust in the testing system. For many Indians the announcement evoked a sense of déjà vu. A similar committee was convened in 2024 after irregularities in another medical entrance exam provoked nationwide unrest. That panel proposed more than 100 reforms, of which only a small fraction have reportedly been fully implemented. The pattern has repeated: an exam fails, students protest, a committee is appointed, reforms are outlined—only for another incident to expose the same vulnerabilities. Experts consulted by the BBC say the problems extend beyond paper leaks, touching the NTA’s accountability and capacity, the centralised design of exams and whether India’s reliance on high‑stakes testing needs rethinking. BJ Rao, a member of the 2024 committee and now head of SGT University near Delhi, argues that India should move decisively toward computer‑based testing to curb leaks, speed up processing and reduce human involvement. "Digital connectivity has vastly improved across the country, what we need to do is invest resources and focus on upgrading infrastructure and moving to computer‑based exams," he told the BBC. "We currently have ad hoc centres for conducting exams. We need to replace them with standardised state‑controlled online centres." Technology alone will not solve the problem, Rao cautions. He points to the agency’s reliance on contractual staff: just 24 of its 221 employees are permanent, many drawn from bureaucratic ranks, according to government data. "When you have a large workforce of people working on a temporary basis, there is no sense of belonging, and that has an impact on the functions as well. You need people who are well‑versed in academia and experienced in conducting such assessments to ensure better absorption and oversight," he explains. Other analysts contend that recurring crises have revealed flaws not only in how exams are administered but also in how they are structured. Keshav Aggarwal, an educationist and president of the Educators Federation, says the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) or NEET‑UG—whose leak triggered this year’s protests—could be remodelled on the country’s engineering entrance exam, which is computer‑based and held in two stages. "Rather than relying on a single high‑stakes test day, the exams could be held across multiple sessions with different sets of questions," he says. "Different stages and days with varying sets of questions" would reduce risks tied to any one exam and make the strategy more resilient to disruptions, Aggarwal adds. Experts also question whether an annual exam can serve millions competing for scarce university seats. India needs a framework allowing students to sit important entrance tests more than once a year, as is common in several Western nations, said Yamini Aiyar, senior visiting fellow at Brown University. "This would give students another chance if an exam is cancelled or they do not perform well, reducing the hazard of losing a full year," she says. For millions of Indian students the risk is real. Many spend years preparing and spend tens of thousands of rupees on private tuition. A leaked, cancelled or delayed exam can abruptly erase months or years of effort. Pari, 17, felt that uncertainty first‑hand. After taking NEET this year she had to retake it when the initial exam was cancelled following a paper leak. "It was very frustrating. All our preparation had gone to waste, and we had to start all over again," she said. The episode left her aggravated by repeated exam failures. "The government can form as many panels as it likes. We need a system strong enough to prevent paper leaks from happening again." Mansi Bansal, 23, recounts a comparable ordeal. She spent months preparing for UGC‑NET, a qualification for entry‑level university teaching posts. The exam was cancelled after a 2024 paper leak and again this year after the NTA cited errors in three subjects. Bans