The first day of undertaking the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) in Meghalaya descended into chaos at North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) with delays in holding the English exam having knock-on effects that kept exhausted students on campus well into the night.
Out of more than 8,000 students set to take the test in Shillong, approximately 3,000 were assigned to NEHU.
Scheduled to commence at 3pm, the English paper was delayed until late evening. Students, many of whom arrived at the examination centre by 1pm, found themselves in disarray as they searched for their designated examination rooms within the sprawling university campus.
Those English paper students who had also opted for the General Test paper had to sit for it late into the evening. The General Test paper was supposed to start at 5pm and end at 6pm.
The situation escalated as thousands of students and parents crowded the university premises, leading to instances of students fainting due to hunger, having arrived on empty stomachs.
Furthermore, technical glitches in checking students’ biometrics at Raid Laban College caused a further delay of approximately 10 minutes.
However, the examination went off smoothly in other test centres by and large.
The CUET, which Meghalaya had been exempted from last year, is being conducted in Shillong, Jowai and Tura from May 15 to 24. Shillong hosts 12 test centres, Jowai five and Tura nine.
A total of 8,535 candidates are expected in Shillong, 5,618 in Tura and 4,269 in Jowai. The examination employs a hybrid mode, featuring both a computer-based test (CBT) and pen and paper exams, with offline exams from May 15 to 18 and CBT on May 21, 22 and 24.
Results for CUET-UG 2024 will be announced on June 30.
Meanwhile, the TMC came down upon the government stating that the physical and mental distress caused to students was because of disorderly administration of CUET.
TMC State Youth President, Fernandez S Dkhar said that the central government is enforcing policies without a thorough grasp of implementation and methodologies.
Dkhar also expressed disappointment over the lack of initiative from the state government stating that its incompetence in implementation of CUET reflects a broader state of chaos and held it accountable for the situation today.
