Only 39 permanent staff: NTA held 270 exams for 6.6 crore candidates since 2018

The Centre told the Rajya Sabha that NTA has 39 permanent posts, all filled through deputation. The reply showed how contractual, outsourced and field staff support exams involving crores of registrations.

In Short

• All permanent positions in the agency are filled through deputation
• NTA also currently employs 73 contractual and 124 outsourced personnel
• The Centre has created 16 additional senior-level posts to strengthen operations

The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts some of India's largest entrance examinations including NEET UG, CUET and JEE Main, has just 39 permanent posts, all filled through deputation, the Centre informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

The government said the agency has conducted more than 270 examinations since its inception in 2018, handling over 6.6 crore candidate registrations.

Responding to an unstarred question by CPI(M) MP Dr V Sivadasan, Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar said the NTA supplements its permanent cadre with contractual, outsourced and field-level personnel, while also noting that the government has created 16 additional senior-level posts to strengthen the agency.

While the number of permanent employees may appear small, it is not unusual for modern testing agencies.

Large-scale examination bodies increasingly function with a lean core workforce while relying on contractual staff, consultants, technology partners, testing vendors and empanelled personnel for operations such as question paper development, exam delivery, cybersecurity, logistics and evaluation.

This is particularly common for computer-based tests, where much of the infrastructure is outsourced to specialised agencies. Similar arrangements are followed by several testing organisations globally, with a permanent staff overseeing policy, quality assurance and coordination while operational manpower is scaled up as needed during examination cycles.

NTA RELIES HEAVILY ON DEPUTATION AND CONTRACTUAL WORKFORCE

The government said all 39 permanent positions in the agency are filled through deputation. These include one Director General, two Joint Secretaries, eight Directors, six Joint Directors and Research Scientists, three Deputy Directors, two Assistant Directors and two Senior Superintendents, among others.

Besides these, NTA has engaged 73 contractual personnel, including advisors, consultants, software developers and young professionals. Another 124 personnel have been outsourced for roles such as data analysts, legal associates, junior consultants and housekeeping staff.

The ministry clarified that the agency's core staff is supplemented by a large network of examination functionaries deployed during tests. Depending on the nature of an examination, NTA engages observers, city coordinators, centre superintendents and members of State and District Level Coordination Committees in coordination with state governments, centrally funded higher educational institutions, Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas.

This decentralised structure enables the agency to conduct examinations simultaneously across hundreds of cities despite having a small permanent establishment.

According to the ministry, NTA has conducted over 270 examinations since it was established in 2018, covering more than 6.6 crore candidate registrations. In 2026 alone, the agency has so far conducted 12 examinations involving over 65 lakh registrations.

The government also cited NEET UG 2026 as an example of the agency's operational scale. The examination was conducted on May 3 at 5,432 centres across 565 cities in 13 languages. Following the re-examination held on June 21, the results were declared on July 16, it said.

The government also placed NTA's financial figures in Parliament, showing that both its income and expenditure have steadily risen alongside the expansion of examinations. NTA reported an income of Rs 1,116.84 crore and expenditure of Rs 1,040.95 crore in 2023-24, up from Rs 504.16 crore in income and Rs 440.20 crore in expenditure in 2019-20, indicating the growing financial scale of the agency's operations.

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