SHILLONG: A delegation of North Eastern Hills University Students’ Union (NEHUSU) members met Chief Minister Conrad Sangma to apprise him of the academic scenario in the university. In the memorandum, the union stated that NEHU has only one centre for the University Grants Commission (UGC) National Eligibility Test and none for the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research National Eligibility Test.
Again, the state has no centre for State Level Eligibility test, which is conducted by Meghalaya to select eligible educators.
These tests are mandatory for determining eligibility for the post of assistant professor or junior research fellowship in Indian universities and colleges.
In 2018, the UGC decided that the test would be conducted as a Computer Based Test.
“The result of the decision has exposed the truth of the state’s inadequacy to deal with modern but extremely common phenomenon of computerised tests,” he said. Meghalaya had only one test Centre located at Qualapatty in Shillong for the December 2018 NET and the information released by UGC has revealed that there is still only one centre in the state for the scheduled test in June 2019.
“There is no logical means to explain how the capacity of one building could satisfy the actual number of candidates who wish to appear the test. As for the CSIR NET Meghalaya has had no centers and will not have one for 2019 as well,” the NEHUSU stated. The union pointed out that UGC NET has a total of 100 subjects that students can choose from and the CSIR NET offers 95 subjects.
“This implies that students who wish to appear these two mandatory tests that could determine their futures have to travel beyond state boundaries for the absurd reason of gaining access to a computer,” it added.
Pointing to the NPP’s prioritisation of education in Meghalaya, the union said the students require willingness of those in power to actually make education a priority as promised.
