2 days before exam slated to begin, Maharashtra CET aspirants await circular, details

The state government recently announced that CET exams will take place in two phases this year – September 4-10 and September 14-20

Two days before the Maharashtra common entrance test (MH-CET) for admissions to engineering, pharmacy and architecture colleges is scheduled to begin, students are still waiting for an official circular on the exam. While the dates were tentatively announced by state minister for higher and technical education Uday Samant last month, no official circular has been released to confirm the dates on the official CET cell website as on Thursday evening.

No official circular has been released to confirm the dates on the official CET cell website as on Thursday evening.

“After the initial verbal announcement last month, no official confirmation about the exam dates has been made. The CET website has no new circular, and even the office number is of no help,” said Anirudh Nair, an MH-CET applicant. Nair, like many other students from Maharashtra, recently appeared for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Mains) and is preparing for MH-CET as well as JEE-Advanced exam, both scheduled to take place in the next couple of weeks.

The state government recently announced that CET exams will take place in two phases this year – September 4-10 and September 14-20. Between these two phases, however, students have also pointed that the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-UG) is scheduled to take place on September 12, while the entrance exam for the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is scheduled to take place on September 7, 8 and 13.

Earlier this month, a representation of parents and students approached Samant seeking postponement of MH-CET.

“Around the same time, Class 12 students from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CET exams ) also have their class improvement exam which is scheduled to take place between August 25 and September 15. If CET isn’t rescheduled, either students will be under a lot of stress to appear for all exams or they’ll end up dropping one or two of the exams, which is unfair,” said a student.

As per figures revealed by the CET cell in June, registrations for the exam dropped from 500,000 last year to 430,000 this year. For years now, engineering faculties have been attracting fewer students and the fall in registrations could be due to the same reason, say experts.

“A growing number of students are facing financial strain due to job losses in their family, and with the pandemic still very much in place, there’s a good chance that students are not applying for courses due to financial difficulties,” said the principal of an engineering institute in the city.