Hundreds of students from several Bengal districts and Calcutta, who took the Central University Entrance Test (CUET) at a private university in Sector V, Salt Lake, on Tuesday, had to spend over a couple of hours extra in the exam halls because of prolonged technical glitches.
“I reported at the exam centre at 7am because the test was scheduled to start at 9am. I was allowed entry to the centre after 8am but the exam could not start before 11.30am. Invigilators informed us that the server of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which is conducting the test on behalf of the University Grants Commission, was completely down and hence the delay. So, instead of my exam ending at 11.30am, it was finally over at 2.15 pm,” said a candidate on condition of anonymity.
The delay resulted in another loss for the girl. She missed her entrance test for admission to music at the Rabindra Bharati University.
“The (RBU) exam was scheduled from 12.30pm and I missed it as CUET was not yet over,” the girl added.
“I had already booked a car to reach Rabindra Bharati’s BT Road campus for the entrance test that was to start an hour after CUET. But the CUET tech glitch proved costly for my daughter. She wants to study music at the undergraduate level. The timing of the tests for Visva-Bharati (under CUET) and Rabindra Bharati coincided on Tuesday as the CUET took longer than expected,” the girl’s father said.
The CUET is the sole entrance test mandatory for admission to all the central universities in the country in the undergraduate, postgraduate and research courses.
Till last year, the central universities used to organise their tests separately but that has changed with the introduction of CUET from this year.
The CUET, which started on July 15, is being held in phases. The Centre-run NTA has been facing criticism as repeated glitches have marred the CUET.
The test comprised an hour-long paper of general knowledge and 45-minute papers each of other subjects.
A student said that he lost at least 20 minutes of exam time because he had to log in multiple times and his question paper kept disappearing from the computer screen.
“It was a pathetic experience. I lost 20 minutes of the time allotted to me to complete the test. I had to leave a few questions unanswered,” said the student who came all the way from Murshidabad.
Parents complained that the exam centre authorities also did not inform them about the reason for the delay. Rather, the parents said that they had to spend “anxious hours” outside the gate under the scorching sun.
“My son had only eaten two biscuits before entering the venue and planned to have breakfast afterwards as his examination was supposed to be over by 10.45 am. My son finally came out at 1.30 pm. The authorities should have put in place a glitch-free system,” fumed a guardian who came from Santiniketan.
A group of parents got involved in a heated exchange with security guards of the examination centre when the latter failed to provide any information on why the students were not stepping out after 10.45 am or 11.30 am — depending on the number of papers they answered — even though the exam should have ended by then.
“There is no shelter in the vicinity of the exam centre and we are waiting under the blazing sun for hours. This is sheer harassment for elderly people like us,” said a woman in her mid-60s whose nephew took the test.
A high school teacher from Purulia said that the central government should have arranged an online test which students could have taken in the comfort of their homes.
“The log-in and log-out time is fixed by the NTA portal. Then why did the authorities not conduct the exam online? Those who don’t have access to computers at home could have taken the test at cyber cafes or elsewhere,” said the teacher.
