By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, May 15: The HYC on Wednesday slammed both the state government and NEHU for trying to evade responsibility for the mismanagement in the conduct of the CUET (UG) 2024 at the university campus.
“It was disappointing to learn that Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma had tried to distance himself when our members from the Education Cell informed him of what had happened at NEHU. According to the Education minister, the government cannot do anything since the entrance examination is being conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA),” HYC president Roy Kupar Synrem told reporters after meeting the parents and students at NEHU. He said that the Minister’s statement is highly questionable since it is the government that has accepted CUET for admission to various colleges in the state.
The HYC president questioned why CUET should be applicable for admission into the government-aided colleges in the first place.
Meanwhile, Synrem also asserted that NEHU should take full responsibility since it had agreed to have a centre for the CUET in the university, while at the same time questioning the university’s failure to prepare the list of roll numbers and the allotment of classrooms. “There was a rush in the Social Science cluster since students were not properly informed about the clusters they had been allotted to sit for the entrance examination,” Synrem said.
Further, the HYC president said that the government and NEHU should ensure that no students should fail to get admission to colleges if they failed to appear in the CUET.
Synrem said that the HYC will meet the Education minister on Thursday to request his intervention in order to ensure that such lapse is not repeated.
“We would like the minister to ask NEHU to ensure that all students are given an opportunity to appear in the CUET entrance examination in case they failed to appear today,” Synrem added.
CUET an option?
Meanwhile, a faculty member at NEHU, Prasenjit Biswas, said that the state government needs to decide whether to make CUET mandatory for admission to colleges.
“Many students have decided not to sit for the CUET since many colleges have not mentioned that it is required,” he said.
NEHU faculty also suggested that the state government should seriously consider making CUET optional for students.
When asked if it is right to shift the responsibility to the NTA, Biswas said that it would be unfair to blame the NTA entirely since it is a distant entity.
“We need to take responsibility as the university since there are some glitches. I would like the government to be more sensible and sensitive to the situation and the plight of the students, especially in a major center like NEHU,” he said.
TMC voices dismay
The Opposition TMC jumped on the bandwagon of critics terming the lapse as harrowing.
“Today, the events that unfolded at NEHU during the inaugural CUET examination were nothing short of a harrowing ordeal, inflicting both physical and mental anguish upon our young students,” said TMC State youth president, Fernandez S Dkhar.
Informing that he was contacted by a concerned parent, Dkhar asked who would bear the responsibility for the lapse. Her maintained that this ordeal not only affects the students, but it deeply concerns the parents as well.
Stating that the disorderly administration of CUET, leading to turmoil among our students, warrants strong condemnation, he said, “While CUET holds promise as an opportunity for our students if executed effectively, the central government’s tendency to enforce policies without a thorough grasp of implementation methodologies is evident.”
He also lamented the lack of initiative from the state government to challenge or resolve the situation for the benefit of students, except for the limited exemptions granted in 2022 and 2023. “Furthermore, the perplexity extends to colleges, left without clear directives from any authority,” he added.
Dkhar said the incompetence displayed by the governments in the haphazard implementation of CUET reflects a broader state of chaos.
“They have imposed CUET without adequate planning or understanding, leaving our students in a predicament. The government (Central and State) must be held accountable for their role in this situation,” he added.