Chief Minister Conrad Sangma has written to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan urging for exemption of Common University Entrance Test (CUET) in respect of students of Meghalaya seeking admission for undergraduate courses in NEHU and other Central universities for the current academic session.
In the letter, Sangma said that Meghalaya has recently undergone the Legislative Assembly election the results of which have been declared last week and this has resulted in the delay of State Board examination “and in this regard, students are facing unprecedented challenges to attempt the CUET for the State level undergraduate institutions.”
Sangma also said that the State government has taken steps to create a State University, for which the government will soon be receiving the approval of the Governor of Meghalaya.
“In light of the above, and as most of the colleges in the State are affiliated to the North Eastern Hill University, I request your good office to kindly exempt the State of Meghalaya from conducting the CUET,” Sangma said in his letter to Pradhan.
It may be recalled that last year too, the Central government had exempted the students of Meghalaya from CUET following the request made by the chief minister to the Union education minister.
Meanwhile, Education Minister Rakkam A. Sangma today said that he has written to the chief minister to take up with the Education Ministry for exemption of CUET in respect of students of Meghalaya seeking admission in undergraduate institutions for the current academic session.
Sangma said this during his first interaction with the senior officials of the Education Department a day after he took over as education minister.
In addition, he also stated that the request letter for extension of the last date of registration for CUET to March 31 for the State of Meghalaya has been forwarded to the Director General, NTA, New Delhi, citing reasons of the recent Assembly elections which resulted in the delay of State Board examination wherein, several rural-based students are facing problems of applying/registration in the CUET portal due to remote location, internet connectivity and inaccessible terrain challenges.
It may be noted that the Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE) has recently informed that students of all streams who are appearing for the HSSLC Examination 2023 need to sit for the CUET if they intend on applying to central universities for their undergraduate studies. Further, all HSSLC students from Meghalaya who wish to pursue further studies in universities and colleges across the country have to appear for the CUET which is mandatory to secure admission in undergraduate courses.
Meanwhile, during his interaction with the Education Department officials, Sangma reiterated the need to improve the educational sector through fast-tracking recruitment of government elementary school teachers, contextualisation of the State Curriculum Framework(SCF) in the context of the National Curriculum Framework(NCF) and in line with the New Education Policy 2020, as well as capitalising on the current initiatives of the State government to upgrade infrastructure, improvement of quality education through child-tracking system under Vidya Samiksha Kendra and streamlining teacher’s salary.
The minister also made a brief visit to the Directorate of Educational Research and Training and exhorted all the teams to work tirelessly for furthering the quality of education in the State.
