The University Grants Commission’s proposal to hold a single nationwide test for admission to central universities was widely welcomed earlier this year as a measure to simplify the admission process and reduce students’ tensions. But when the proposed test, called the Central Universities Entrance Test (CUET), is being conducted in phases since last month, it has raised too many questions and created fresh tensions for many students. There were glitches of various kinds in the conduct of the test from the first day on July 15. These included server failures, delays in issuing admission cards, mix-up of questions, and misleading information on examination venues. In some cases, question papers were not uploaded on time. Some candidates were given dates that had already passed. A number of students across the country were not able to take the examinations for these and other reasons. Exams have been deferred for thousands of students who were affected adversely by the problems. These have led to much criticism of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducted the tests.
The tests have been rescheduled for thousands of affected students. According to the original schedule, all phases of the exam were to conclude on August 20. The rescheduling will result in delays in admission procedures for the courses, and the process will now be over only in September, if there are no further delays. Academic schedules had gone topsy turvy in the last two years because of the Covid pandemic. They are going to be affected this year due to the bungling in the conduct of CUET. The rescheduled tests are expected to be held this week. The NTA has announced a grievance redressal platform, and the UGC has announced that every problem that the candidates had would be attended to.
The NTA had first tried to shift the blame to the examination centres, saying that they did not comply with the protocols. But the details of the snags showed that the bungling occurred at the testing agency. UGC Chairman Jagadesh Kumar has even said that there are indications of ‘sabotage’. The NTA has conducted other examinations like the Joint Entrance Examination-Main and the National Eligibility and Entrance Test before, and the scope of the CUET may be further expanded. If the agency cannot conduct the examinations without hitches, it will lose its credibility and create more stress for the students. About 1.5 million students had applied for the test which was held in over 550 centres, and the NTA should have been better prepared to conduct an exercise of that scale. Those who are responsible for the bungling should be identified and held accountable for the lapses.