THE SECOND phase of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET-UG) 2022 hit a major technical snag on Thursday, forcing over 50,000 candidates across the country to return from centers without taking the exam because the National Testing Agency (NTA) at the Upload failed questionnaires in time.
The NTA, an autonomous agency under the Department of Education, said those candidates would be allocated slots between August 12 and 14. “The same admission card applies to the affected candidates whose exams have been postponed,” Sadhana Parashar, NTA’s senior director (exams), said in a statement.
The final date of the second phase of the exam, for which 14.4 thousand candidates registered, is August 20.
Disruptions in 41 centers in 29 cities were first reported on Thursday, affecting about 4,000 candidates assigned the morning slot (9am to 12.15pm). Apart from Delhi and Ladakh, the affected centers were located in 15 states: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. Those candidates must show up for the exam on Aug. 12, the NTA said.
Reportedly, many of the affected candidates in the morning slot only learned after they reached their centers that the exam had been postponed. “There was no information on the official website. The center has just informed us that the exam has been cancelled. Later, a friend showed me the clue on Twitter,” said Ronojoy Mukherjee, who was scheduled to take the exam at a center in Noida.
DP Singh, who accompanied his daughter Sakshi to an examination center in Faridabad, said: “We waited until 10:30 am. Then they started to let the students in. But just in the middle of the process they suddenly announced that the paper was canceled and we would receive an email.”
Later in the day, the disruptions worsened, washing out the entire second slot (3 p.m. to 6:45 p.m.), affecting all 489 centers across the country, where about 50,000 candidates had registered, an NTA official said. “In the second slot, all 61 papers were affected. They could not be uploaded in time,” the official said.
“Due to technical reasons, the questionnaire for the second shift of the exam could only be uploaded at 5 p.m. and the download at 489 centers could start at 5:25 p.m., while the exam was supposed to start at 3 p.m.,” the NTA said in a statement. These candidates will be given a new date between August 12th and 14th. If the dates “are not suitable, candidates may email datechange@nta.ac.in and indicate their desired date roll number”.
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Cases were also reported where candidates could not finish their work due to technical problems. Several students at the Delhi University center complained that they could not complete the “general examination paper”.
“Due to technical difficulties, the general test questions were not displayed on the screen. We sat there for five hours but couldn’t try our hand at the newspaper. Most people failed to submit their answers. We will have to sit again later for the entire paper, which will be communicated later,” said Harsh Choudhary, a candidate.
Another student, Garima Shreya, said she could not even take the test during the first phase from July 15-20 due to technical problems. “This was my third attempt after server issues in July. Now I will appear for the exam a fourth time, with no certainty as to the date,” she said.
So far, the NTA has allowed 19 candidates who missed the CUET-UG in July due to last-minute changes in exam centers to retake the exam.
Meanwhile, the NTA announced early Thursday that the CUET UG exams, scheduled to take place between August 4 and 6 in Kerala, have been postponed due to heavy rains.
CUET-UG results will be used by 90 universities – 44 central government-run, 12 state-run, 21 private and 13 recognized – to admit students to undergraduate programs in the 2022-23 session.
Apr 9, 2022