The source said that the new system was already tested in the recent CSIR exam and the NEET re-exam, and is being institutionalised now.A day after the Education ministry announced an overhaul of the examination system at the National Testing Agency (NTA), a top agency official said the agency was looking at curtailing the engagement time of subject experts as the “mafia tries to make them compromised” if they are there for a longer duration.“The reason is that the mafia tries to make these people compromised. What we are faced with is a big mafia,” the official said.The official said that the NTA and the Education ministry are learnt to be leaning towards a system where they won’t be divulging full information even within official circles.“We are not disclosing everything. We aren’t opening all our cards … Even people within the system will not be told everything. These will be confidential plans divulged to people only in parts on a need-to-know basis,” the official said.Stating that the four-tier system will be operationalised at two distinct levels, he said the first would be during the setting of the question papers where separate sets of people will be involved with key functions – item writers, and those moderating, translating, and vetting them.At the second level, he said, there will be a four-tier system for physical security during the process. The persons coming to the centres will be physically frisked, their credentials will be established, their electronic devices will be verified, and it will be ensured that they work in “air-gapped systems”, meaning a computer or a system that is completely isolated from unsecured external networks, including the public internet.A day earlier, NTA Director General Abhishek Singh had shared information about a four-tier system being put in place, the removal of 600 experts and onboarding of new ones, and the securing of premises by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which specialises in frisking.Story continues below this adThe source said that the new system was already tested in the recent CSIR exam and the NEET re-exam, and is being institutionalised now.The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, in its report submitted to Parliament last year (371st Report, 2025), had flagged what it saw as the NTA’s problems. “It has been brought to the notice of the Committee that in the year 2024 alone, of the 14 competitive examinations conducted by the NTA, at least five faced major issues and as a result, three examinations viz. UGC-NET, CSIR-NET and NEET-PG had to be postponed, one examination viz. NEET-UG saw instances of paper leaks, and one examination i.e. CUET (UG/PG), saw its results postponed,” it noted.“In JEE Main 2025 held in January 2025, at least 12 questions had to be withdrawn due to errors noted in the final answer key of the engineering entrance exam. The Committee observed that such instances do not inspire confidence of the examinees in the system. The Committee therefore recommends that NTA needs to quickly get their act together so that such instances… do not occur in the future,” the panel said. Vikas Pathak is deputy associate editor with The Indian Express and writes on national politics. He has over 17 years of experience, and has worked earlier with The Hindustan Times and The Hindu, among other publications. He has covered the national BJP, some key central ministries and Parliament for years, and has covered the 2009 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls and many state assembly polls. He has interviewed many Union ministers and Chief Ministers. Vikas has taught as a full-time faculty member at Asian College of Journalism, Chennai; Symbiosis International University, Pune; Jio Institute, Navi Mumbai; and as a guest professor at Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi. Vikas has authored a book, Contesting Nationalisms: Hinduism, Secularism and Untouchability in Colonial Punjab (Primus, 2018), which has been widely reviewed by top academic journals and leading newspapers. He did his PhD, M Phil and MA from JNU, New Delhi, was Student of the Year (2005-06) at ACJ and gold medalist from University Rajasthan College in Jaipur in graduation. He has been invited to top academic institutions like JNU, St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and IIT Delhi as a guest speaker/panellist. ... Read More Tags:Education ministryNational Testing Agency