90% Hindi questions in Kannada paper shock UGC-NET examinees

Thousands of candidates across Karnataka who appeared for the UGC-NET exam for Kannada, conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Sunday, were shocked to find that most of the questions were in Hindi.

The National Eligibility Test (NET) is conducted to assess eligibility for teaching at undergraduate colleges and universities and to qualify for research. On Sunday, the test was conducted in online mode.

However, thousands of candidates who logged in to write the Kannada exam were shocked to find that 90 questions out of 100 were in Hindi, leading to much confusion.

The candidates launched a protest at several centres and boycotted the test.

The issue went viral on social media, forcing the NTA to issue a public notice postponing the test.

"The first paper, which was for 50 marks, was normal. But in the second paper carrying 100 marks, most questions were in Hindi," said a candidate who had registered for the test from Bengaluru.

"As there are no coordinators at the level of universities, since the test is conducted by NTA, it took us at least an hour to reach out to the authorities as it was Sunday," said another candidate.

"This is the problem when everything is controlled by people sitting in Delhi. How can they set questions for Kannada subject in Hindi," another candidate asked.

At around 5 pm, the candidates received a communication from NTA about the postponement.

The notice issued by NTA read: "Due to the technical issues at some of the centres of UGC-NET December 2020 and June 2021 cycle examination, Subject Kannada held on December 26th (Shift 1) in CBT mode, the scheduled examination could not be conducted. NTA has decided to reschedule the examination of these impacted candidates. The revised dates for the rescheduled examination will be uploaded shortly along with the revised admit card of these candidates."

The notice advised the candidates to regularly visit the NTA website for the latest updates regarding the examination.

The UGC-NET was postponed at least four times in the last 10 months due to various reasons. The December 2020 cycle was merged with the June 2021 cycle and finally scheduled on December 26, 2021.

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