Indications of sabotage found: UGC chief on CUET-UG cancellation

UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar on Sunday issued a statement responding to rising criticism about the glitches in the CUET-UG exams, and said exams in some centres were cancelled after there were reports of sabotage in exam centres.

The UGC had to cancel the second set of exams on the first day of the second phase, as well as the first exam of the day in over 53 centres.

Kumar said that CUET-UG is a mammoth exercise conducted by the National Testing Agency, and the scale of the exam can be gauged by the fact that the exams are conducted spanning across 61 subjects in 13 languages across the country.

“Due to technical glitches in some of the centres, the rest had to be rescheduled. At some centres, the centre staff should have shown more empathy with the students. There were also reports and indications of sabotage in the process. The NTA immediately swung into action and cancelled and postponed examinations in centres which witnessed such a possibility,” Kumar said. “Strict action will be taken against anyone involved in wilful sabotage of the process,” he added.

As part of corrective action, he said, the UGC is deploying more school teachers since “they have more experience of dealing with the students with empathy”, he said.

“Cancellation of the test in some centres was done keeping the best interests of the students in mind. The process has been designed keeping in mind the sanctity of the exams and the interests of the students being paramount,” he added.

Kumar said that the NTA is constantly in touch with the students through email, messages and voicemail to keep them informed of the changes and said he is hopeful that in the coming days, the CUET-UG will be conducted smoothly.

On Saturday, the NTA issued a statement where it said that any incidence of non-compliance or sabotage or ignorance will be viewed “very seriously” and “strict action will be taken” against those centres.