The undergraduate Central University Entrance Test (CUET) was cancelled for the day at 53 centres, including 32 in the capital, on Saturday, spelling uncertainty and harassment for more students in a continuing saga of glitches that has marred the exam since it started on July 15.
The National Testing Agency (NTA), the central government outfit conducting the maiden CUET, said those students whose exams were cancelled on Saturday would be given a fresh opportunity over three days from August 12 to 14.
The same admit cards will be valid, the NTA said. “In case the above date is not suitable, the candidate can send an email to datechange@nta.ac.in mentioning their desired date and roll number,” the NTA said in a statement.
“Due to administrative/logistics/technical reasons, the CUET-UG 2022 examination scheduled for 6th August 2022 at 53 centres has been postponed to be held between 12 to 14 August 2022 for affected candidates,” it said.
The NTA said the information had been passed on to the affected students through SMS and email on their registered mobile phones and mail IDs, respectively. Many students, however, complained that they had not received prior information about the cancellation. On Friday, exams had been cancelled at 50 centres across the country. The same had happened at several centres on Thursday as well. The 53 centres include 32 in Delhi, four each in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, two each in Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Haryana and one each in Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Maharashtra and Ladakh.
“Taking cognisance of the inconvenience faced by the students in some of the centres of CUET, NTA reviewed the entire situation yesterday. It was found that some of the centres failed to comply with the laid-down protocols. Any incidence of non-compliance/sabotage/ignorance will be viewed very seriously and strict action will be taken against those centres to ensure smooth conduct of examinations in future,” the NTA statement said.
The undergraduate CUET is the sole point of entry to colleges affiliated to central universities from this year. Nearly 14.9 lakh candidates have registered for the test, which began on July 15 and will continue till August 20.The worst hit were students who had to travel long distances to take the test.“Our students had gone to a Noida exam centre for the test.
They spent a lot of money on Uber. They found that the test at the centre had been cancelled. It is very disappointing,” said Sudha Acharya, principal of ITL Public School in New Delhi. She said the one-way app-cab fare was between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500 for the 40km journey.Many students are preferring private transport or app cabs over modes of mass transport because of the pandemic.