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NTA faces shortage of centres in J&K, Jharkhand amid surge in CUET applications
According to NTA officials, nearly 1.5mn students have applied for the national common entrance test this year, as against around 990,000 students last year.
An unexpected, exponential surge in the number for applicants for the undergraduate chapter of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) from Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand this year has left the National Testing Agency (NTA) scrambling to arrange enough centres in these states, forcing it to extend the last date for the exams till June 6 across the country.
The exam was earlier scheduled between May 21 and May 31.
According to NTA officials aware of the matter, nearly 1.5 million students have applied for the national common entrance test this year, as against around 990,000 students last year.
Crucially, the officials said, 87,309 students from J&K have applied for the exam this year, more than six times last year’s count of 13,021. In Jharkhand, this number shot up nearly seven times, going from 26,497 to 178,630.
This essentially means that 17.8% of all students who have applied for the entrance examination are from these two states alone. Last year, their proportion was just 4%, the officials said, attributing the surge in applications to an increase in the number of universities – from 90 last year to 250 this year – participating in the exam.
This disbalance, senior officials said, means that a section of students are unlikely to be allotted a centre in their preferred state and will be given a slot in a neighbouring one.
University Grants Commission (UGC) chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar, who is monitoring the CUET with NTA, said the agency is trying to allot students their first or second preference of examination centres.
“But we are facing a unique challenge in J&K and Jharkhand, because there aren’t many centres available there. In spite of our best efforts, after exhausting the centres in their respective states, they are now given in the neighbouring states. The city information slip is released in advance, so that they have time to make travel arrangements,” he said.
A senior NTA official also said that the agency is trying its best to accommodate students within the state.
The nascent troubles with CUET this year are a troubling reminder of the litany of glitches that plagued the first edition of the ambitious exercise last year, with students allotted centres in far-flung seats and multiple delays to the tests themselves, as well as the results. CUET was extended by almost 10 days last year after consecutive exams were cancelled, many at the last-minute, due to technical and administrative glitches.
The testing agency promised changes this year to avert a repeat of such incidents. Officials said examination centres will be allotted within 100km range of their addresses, students will be informed about their centres in advance, there will be extra computers at each testing centre and that each candidate will be given extra time to download and upload papers.
This year, several candidates from Jharkhand and J&K who have been allotted centres hundreds of kilometres from their homes have vented their displeasure on social media.
Sheikh Daniyal, a student from Kashmir, on Wednesday tweeted: “I am from Kashmir, my CUET-UG examination center is allotted in Chandigarh nearly 500km away from here. I reside in a remote area. Please explain this genius process to me.”
Similarly, Girisha Singhania, a student from Jharkhand, tweeted: “I filled my exam centre preferences for towns in my state. But today, I received my exam centre slip and it was in the state of Odisha. Lots of students in my state are facing the same trouble.”
Taking note of the complaints, Kumar said the agency is trying its best to accommodate as many students as possible within their respective states. “We are releasing the details about the cities of examination centres well in advance to help students make all necessary arrangements,” he said.
He added that the shortage of centres has led NTA to revise the dates of CUET and extend it till June 6, instead of May 31 earlier. Spacing the test out, he said, will help the agency better allot centres.
“This will help us maximise the number of students who get a centre in their own state. In other states also we are trying to allot centers within the states,” he said.
NTA earlier released the centre intimation slips for students whose exams will be held between May 21 and May 24, and on Wednesday released slips for those whose exams are scheduled between May 25 and May 28.
Explaining the possible reason behind the surge in the number of candidates, Kumar said that with 250 universities this year participating in the test, CUET-UG is emerging as the largest exam in the country.
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