The State government will approach the National Testing Agency (NTA) to seek re-test or exempt Meghalaya students from the Common University Entrance Test (CUET).
Chaos erupted at the campus of North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) on the first day of the test with delays in holding the English exam having knock-on effects that kept exhausted students on campus well into the night.
Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma said the government is taking the matter of CUET examination seriously as the NTA was not prepared. “This examination has nothing to do with the State government; it was completely done by NTA. It was a lack of preparedness, coordination and they did not communicate with the State government,” he added.
“Many students could not perform well and many from rural areas have not registered for CUET. We will also request for exemption or students should be given a second chance to sit for the test.” Sangma said.
Meanwhile a review meeting on the CUET chaos was chaired by Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma with NTA coordinators and officials from NEHU, which is the nodal department to conduct the examination.
Sangma informed that only one student did not appear for the examination at NEHU and confirmed that there was a delay in conducting the examination at the stipulated time because of the bio-metrics. “There were supposed to be 40-50 bio-metrics but only seven were there. After the green signal from NTA they just went ahead,” he added.
The Education Minister said at the eleventh hour NEHU was assigned another 4000 students for the test. “On May 14 at 6 pm NEHU was assigned with 2000 students and in the middle of the night they were informed by the NTA to be ready for another 4000 students so they didn’t have the time to coordinate “.
“This is unfortunate and we have taken a serious note of this matter,” he added.
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.
