Ayush Tripathi, a resident of Gorakhpur, is upset he couldn't appear for the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) held on 16 May. But it was through no fault of his own. Who knew there would be a last-minute venue change?
"On the night of 15 May, I downloaded my updated admit card, according to which my centre was in Karawal Nagar in Northeast Delhi. I had my Hindi examination on 16 May, and I reached my centre on time," he told The Quint.
"However, just 15 minutes before my examination, I got an automated call from the NTA [National Testing Agency] asking me to re-download my admit card. In the updated admit card, my centre was changed to Delhi University's Hansraj College without any notice. It took me about 40 minutes to reach Hansraj College. I rushed to the examination centre but wasn't allowed to enter as I was late."
"Only the NTA is to be blamed for this chaos," he adds. The testing agency is responsible for conducting CUET and many other national-level entrance examinations.
Unfortunately, Tripathi is not the only one to face such issues.
CUET this year has been marred by alleged paper leaks, postponements, and frequent changes in exam centres, resulting in many students missing out on writing their exams. The entrance exam, which is mandatory for undergraduate admissions to central universities, was introduced in March 2022, making this the third year of the new system being in place.
Late on 14 May, the NTA announced that an exam, which was scheduled to be held the next day [15 May] in Delhi, had been rescheduled to 29 May because of "unavoidable reasons."
'Exam Centre Allotted 900 Km Away a Day Before Test'
Sristi Bagoria, a resident of Noida, is staring at an uncertain future. "A day before my CUET exams, which were scheduled to be held on 15 May, I was downloading my admit card when I saw that I was assigned an exam centre in Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, which is almost 900 km away from Noida. I had given my test centre preferences as Greater Noida, Faridabad. But was still assigned a centre in Ghazipur," Bagoria told The Quint.
"My father and I began looking for the closest airports to Ghazipur, but even that is 350 km away in Varanasi. I knew I could not make it on time and had no choice but to skip the exam," she added.
Bagoria wanted to pursue a course in Mass Communication and Journalism and scored 97 percent in her class 12 board exams. "I may have to take a gap year, but the thought of that is scaring me. Such gaps are not looked at in a good way in India," she said.
Bagoria's father Saurabh Kumar told The Quint that the future of many students is at stake. "CUET was chaotic last year, and now this year too. If we are informed a day before the exam that the exam centre is about 900 km away, how are we supposed to make arrangements for our children to travel there?" he asked.
'Wasn't Given Enough Time To Finish My Exam'
Shubh Nougrahiya, a resident of Delhi, who appeared for the CUET English paper on 16 May at a centre in the national capital told The Quint that he was unable to finish his English paper due to an "utter mismanagement" by exam authorities.
"The English exam is supposed to be conducted for a duration of 45 minutes. However, I got only 25-30 mins. They didn't give the sheets to fill the details prior to the exam, and they distributed the wrong optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets," he alleged.
He added, "The details in the answer sheet has to be filled in the OMR format which is itself time-consuming and I, along with the whole class, requested the invigilators to give us the answer sheet atleast 10 mins before. But they refused. They only started distributing the answer sheets once our exams started, but there too, they ended up making a mess as they distributed the wrong answer sheet."
"Half of the class suffered due to this. Out of 45 minutes, they wasted about 20 minutes of our crucial time due to this chaos. As a result, I was not able to complete my paper," he told The Quint.
Many on social media have raised a similar complaint.
'Want NTA to Make an Exception'
As per news reports, chaotic scenes unfolded at North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) in Meghalaya's Shillong during the CUET exam held on 15 May.
"Many students could not give their best and many in the rural areas could not register for CUET. There was a lack of preparation and that is why we will request NTA for an exemption. Students should be given a second chance. We will be writing to the NTA to decide on this," Meghalaya Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma told reporters.
Citing NEHU officials, Sangma said a student could not appear for the CUET exam while many others experienced some delay.
"The delay was because there were only seven facilities to collect the biometrics of hundreds of students. Ideally, there should have been 40-50 facilities. Many students could not do well because of this," he added.
Khasi Students' Union (KSU) Education Cell Chairman Pynkmenlang Sanmiet told The Quint that on 15 May, the applicants had to endure hours of waiting without proper direction or signage to guide them to their exam halls.
"There was confusion as the admit card provided by the NTA stipulated that the exam centre was at the NEHU Cluster Building. However, NEHU set up two examination centres in the non-science and science cluster classrooms, without properly notifying the candidates as to which hall their roll number is assigned to."
On the same day, the examination in UP's Kanpur faced significant disruption over allegations of a paper leak. The alleged incident occurred at the Maharana Pratap Group of College, where students created a ruckus, including pelting stones after learning about the alleged paper leak.
The NTA, however, denied the allegations and said that wrong question papers were distributed at the centre and that it would re-conduct the exam on 29 May.
"There was no paper leak, the invigilators mistakenly distributed English medium question paper to the Hindi medium students during the General Test examination at a centre in Kanpur," a senior NTA official told the media.
The NTA has not responded to The Quint's queries on what steps it is taking to fix the glitches and resolve the problems of the students. This story will be updated as and when we receive a response.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)