NTA owes school principals lakhs in NEET, CUET bills despite Rs 449-crore profit

NEW DELHI: While the National Testing Agency (NTA) had made a profit of Rs 449 crore by the 2023-24 academic session, city exam coordinators – who help conduct NTA exams such as NEET, JEE Main and CUET in different states – are struggling to get their dues paid. In some cases, the amount which coordinators – most of whom are school principals – owe to exam observers and other staff, run into several lakhs.

Some of the dues date back to exams held in 2023. When Careers360 spoke to the coordinators from different states, most said that every time they raise the issue of non-payment, they are told that “it was being processed”. However, even after several months, they don’t see any sign of payment.

The ministry of education established the NTA in 2017 as an autonomous body that conducts 15 major exams across states throughout the year. According to data shared with the parliament in August, the NTA exams have fetched the body Rs 3,514 crore in exam fees and Rs 449.21 crore in profits over six years. While it has very few staff of its own, the exercise of conducting mammoth public exams is managed by an army of school principals and teachers on the ground.

The NTA conducts the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET UG) for medicine, the Joint Entrance Examination Main (JEE Mains) for engineering and the Common University Entrance Test (CUET UG) for central universities, among others. The exam body is expected to announce its 2025 calendar with the JEE Main and NEET exam dates soon.

NTA exam centres for NEET

When the NTA conducts exams, a school principal is generally selected to become a city coordinator. City coordinators then coordinate with schools and each one appoints observers and other functionaries in order to hold the exams.

When Careers360 spoke to some of the coordinators, it was revealed that several of the north-eastern states have not received the payment for even the CUET UG exam held last year. The CUET was a computer based test (CBT) running in several shifts.

“My school was a centre for the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET). I am a city coordinator as well. None of the payments have been paid by NTA. We cannot afford to pay such a large amount of money,” said a principal on the condition of anonymity. According to the principal, NTA owes her Rs 6-7 lakh.

The NTA NEET exams are held in paper-and-pen mode. This year, the exams were mired by controversy with investigations of paper leak bringing NTA under the CBI scanner. In NEET 2024, over 24 lakh students had registered. The NEET exams fee for the different categories of candidates was as follow:

• General category: Rs 1,700

• Other Backward Classes (OBC), Economically Weaker Sections (EWS): Rs 1,600

• Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Persons with Disability (PWD): Rs 1,000

NTA CUET registration fees and payments

The NTA CUET registration fee ranges between Rs 750 for three subjects to Rs 1,750 for 10. Over 13 lakh students had registered for the exam in 2024. For bigger cities, which have a large number of centres, the bill amounts are huge.

Principals narrate horrifying tales of having to fill several Google forms everytime they raise the issue of bills.

“They only take details from us but the amount remains unpaid. I have worked with NTA in the past also but now I no longer can, only because of the poor accounting system. I have to blame myself because I only made payments to centre coordinators without waiting for the advance or clearance of the bills,” was a message sent by one of the principals. The amount runs into over Rs 10 lakh and for exams held in the previous years as well.

Narrating the harassment, some have also stated how they have worked with the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in the past, but never faced such issues.

One of them had told NTA: “I hereby declare that I wish to contribute my bills to your organisation. But please release all pending bills, including part payments to observers, for exams held since December 2023.”

The dues of the national coordinators are even higher, with many shelling out money from their own pockets to pay the flying squads.

NTA orientation session dues

Not just examination fees, but the fees for even orientation sessions have not been cleared.

In May this year, NTA had organised an orientation session on how to conduct exams and it was compulsory for all to attend. The coordinators were told that their stay and travel would be reimbursed. Several months on, the principals are still waiting for the clearances.

“NTA just doesn’t seem to be bothered. It is such a frustrating experience for us. I became a centre for the first time, now I will never be. When they are charging money from students for holding the exams, at least make the payments to the centres. The centres are the ones who have to walk the extra mile to ensure everything is in place,” said a principal in the national capital.

NTA had said in the Rajya Sabha that it had earned Rs 3,513.98 crore since its establishment and spent 87.2% of it – Rs 3,064.77 crore – on holding exams. NTA’s earnings increased by 78% from Rs 490.35 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 873.20 crore in 2022-23, it further increased 22% to Rs 1,065.38 crore in 2023-24 compared to the previous year.

NTA did not respond to calls and messages on the matter.