SHILLONG/TURA, June 4: With reports of students from Meghalaya being allotted centres for the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) in others states, the KSU on Sunday urged the state government to take immediate steps to ensure that students of the state are able to appear the examination in centres within Meghalaya.
KSU education secretary Pynkmenlang Sanmiet said they had recently met Secretary of Education Department, Ambrose Ch Marak with a request that the examination centres within the state should be allotted to aspiring students.
He said the official had assured to pursue this matter.
The KSU education secretary said the union is happy to learn that the Education department had written to the Director of the National Testing Agency (NTA) the very same day seeking examination centres in Meghalaya.
He expressed surprise that NTA failed to take steps to address the plight of thousands of students of the state who still need to appear their CUET examination either in Guwahati, Itanagar, Kolkata, or Dimapur.
According to him, there are many students who would have to miss the examination since they cannot afford to travel to these places.
“We have found that the dates of the CUET examination also clashes with other examinations and this means many of our students will be denied the opportunity to pursue their higher studies in universities in other parts of India,” he said.
Sanmiet demanded that the state government should pursue the matter with the NTA to ensure that students of the state do not miss the CUET examination to be held from June 5 to 17.
He said the state government will be solely responsible if the students fail to appear in the CUET examination due to the lack of adequate number of examination centres in the state.
Meanwhile, the Garo Students’ Union met Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma seeking rescheduling of either the NEHU or CUET exams to be held this month, over dates clashing.
A memo was submitted regarding their demand.
CUET is slated to be held on June 12 in either Shillong or Guwahati after which the students are expected to appear for their NEHU exams the next day.
“It will not be possible for them to attend one exam in Guwahati/Shillong before travelling overnight to Tura to give their exams in the morning the next day. We therefore seek the rescheduling of either CUET or the NEHU exams for a later date for the sake of the students,” the GSU said.
