By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, May 16: The state government on Thursday said it is taking the CUET examination issue seriously and will approach the National Testing Agency (NTA) to either re-conduct the examination or to exempt the state from it.
“Many students could not give their best and many in the rural areas could not register for CUET. There was a lack of preparation and that is why we will request NTA for exemption. Students should be given a second chance. We will be writing to the NTA to decide on this,” Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma said after a review meeting chaired by Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma and officials, including those from the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU).
“We had a special meeting on CUET and called the NTA coordinators and the NEHU officials who were made the nodal department to conduct the CUET examination. It has been decided to take up the matter with the NTA,” he said.
“This examination has nothing to do with the state government. It was completely conducted by NTA. It was a lack of preparedness and coordination and they did not communicate with the state government,” he added.
Citing NEHU officials, Sangma said a girl did not appear for the CUET exam while the rest experienced some delay.
“The delay was because there were only seven facilities to collect the biometrics of hundreds of students instead of 40-50. They went ahead with the examination after the green signal from the NTA,” he said.
“Many students could not do well because of this scenario and we are requesting for an exemption,” he added.
Sangma said the NTA informed NEHU on the night of May 14 that they should be ready to conduct CUET for some 4,000 students, hours after telling them there would be 2,000 students. “NEHU did not have time to coordinate. We have taken a serious note of it,” he said.
Chaos erupted on the campus of NEHU, Shillong, on the first day of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) UG 2024 on Wednesday, with scores of students running amok in a bid to appear for their test.
Not only did the commotion expose the mismanagement in NEHU but it also made a student faint at the Social Science cluster building of the institute. The student had to be rushed for medical attention.
Hundreds of students appearing for the English test had gathered at the Social Science cluster building. Confusion prevailed since the roll numbers along with the allotted rooms were not displayed. The admit cards issued by the NTA only mentioned ‘cluster classrooms’, which led to the entire confusion.
It was clear that NEHU could not manage the situation as there were nearly 3,700 students who appeared for the English test under CUET UG.
The English test, which was supposed to be held at 3 pm, was delayed by more than two hours because the biometric system was not working.
NEHU had to get clearance from the NTA authorities in New Delhi to allow the students to appear for the English paper without biometrics. The students could enter the examination centre at 5.15 pm after the university received the clearance.
The General Studies test, which was also delayed, got over at 9.30 pm.