India panel moots exam paper overhaul to prioritise concepts over coaching tricks

Question papers for undergraduate medical, engineering and university entrance tests should be designed to assess conceptual understanding based on school curriculum rather than rewarding techniques taught in coaching centres, a parliamentary panel has suggested.

The 31-member parliamentary standing committee on education has, in its latest report titled “Reforms and Strengthening of National Testing Agency (NTA)”, argued that private coaching institutions were following a parallel curriculum, different from the one set by the NCERT, to optimise success rather than genuine learning.

The panel headed by Congress Rajya Sabha member Mukul Wasnik expressed concern about the rapid expansion of the private coaching industry focused on NTA-conducted exams such as the NEET, JEE and CUET.

“This coaching industry effectively creates a parallel curriculum that is optimised for examination success rather than genuine learning. It also creates severe socioeconomic inequality: students from wealthier families can afford expensive coaching, while those from modest backgrounds cannot.

“The committee is of the view that the coaching industry has grown because of the examination system. When national entrance examinations consistently reward familiarity with specific question patterns, shortcut techniques, and repeated practice of previous years’ papers over genuine conceptual understanding, they create a market for exactly the kind of intensive drilling that coaching centres provide,” the panel said.

The panel found that the coaching industry has created a parallel curriculum, different from the official school curriculum, because exam papers don’t conform to the NCERT or state board syllabus and often test rapid recall and pattern recognition developed through practice rather than genuine conceptual understanding.

“The committee is of the view that the ministry of education should ensure that there should be specific, measurable standards for ensuring that NEET-UG, JEE (Main), and CUET papers test conceptual understanding based on the official school curriculum, rather than rewarding techniques specific to coaching. Further, there should be a regulatory framework for the coaching industry, with attention to fee transparency, safety standards, and the mental health of students in coaching centres,” the report said.

The committee said exam-related firms blacklisted by some states are awarded paper-setting, logistics, and administration contracts by different agencies because there is no national registry of blacklisted firms.

It recommended that the NTA create and maintain a National Registry of Blacklisted Examination Vendors, which should include the names of firms, associated individuals, the nature of the disqualification and the authority that imposed it.