Facing a fresh wave of criticism over botched entrance exams, India’s National Testing Agency (NTA)sacked more staff and will undergo an audit in what could be one of the first steps toward widely called-for education reform.

The NTA will have to eventually submit a report to the education ministry on the corrective actions it has taken, India’s Education Ministry said in a statement.

The development came a day after the NTA cancelled three national entrance exams it had already conducted because of substantial errors in the question papers. Those included factual errors, translation errors, misspelled names of key figures and a host of repeated questions from previous years. The agency said students would have to retake those exams in September.

The latest announcement served as a stark reminder of the cancelled medical entrance exam in May after a question paper was leaked. The controversy set the stage for nationwide protests in July that led to the resignation of former Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Opposition leaders and prominent student bodies criticised the agency for its most recent failure and renewed calls for it to be dissolved.

In response, the NTA sacked additional staff members and began reviewing internal processes and protocols to help ensure future examinations are error-free.

On Monday, India’s newly appointed Education Minister Pralhad Joshi was informed that ‘more than 50 staff have been removed from the NTA’, the ministry said in a post on X.

“The minister directed that strict compliance be ensured of the established exam protocols and also directed that a Complete overhaul of Confidential Operations (CONOPS) architecture, secluded rooms, air-gapped systems, device-deposit protocols be implemented on war footing,” it said.

DW