Top officials to brief parliamentary panel on steps to strengthen NTA, lessons from NEET re-exam

Top officials of the Ministry of Higher Education and the National Testing Agency will brief a Parliamentary panel on the learnings from the NEET-UG re-examination and steps to strengthen the NTA. Sources said former ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan will also brief the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports on the reforms to strengthen the National Testing Agency. Radhakrishnan is also the chairman of the high-powered steering committee constituted by the government to monitor implementation of the recommendations on National Testing Agency (NTA). The panel, during its meeting on July 1, will also review the learnings from the NEET-UG re-examination process and NTA Director General Abhishek Singh will brief the panel members on the outcomes of the re-exam conducted on June 21. Higher Education Secretary Vineet Joshi has also been called by the Parliamentary Committee for the discussions. The NEET-UG exam originally conducted on May 3 was cancelled by the government following reports of 'paper leak' and was re-conducted on June 21. The CBI is probing the paper leak in the NEET exam. Sources said a few former officials of the Indian Institute of Science and AICTE, besides Delhi School of Artificial Intelligence, will also brief the Committee on the impact of AI on education and suggest strategies to maximise employability of students. The sources said the panel has called former head of NIEPA Arun C Mehta and former IIT Guwahati Director and former Chairman of AICTE T G Sitharam to brief the panel members on the impact of artificial intelligence on education. The Parliamentary committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports is chaired by Congress member Mukul Wasnik, and this will be the first meeting under his chairmanship. Earlier, Congress member Digvijaya Singh was the panel chairman, but has since retired on June 21. The panel had earlier summoned all top officials of the ministries of Higher Education and Health and officials of NTA and NMC over the NEET-UG exam paper leak case and the CBSE onscreen marking system.