The Central Universities Entrance Test (CUET) had been envisaged to ease the anxieties of students regarding admissions in various government-sponsored prestigious educational institutions in the country. But in its very first year, CUET has become a nightmare as the process is yet to be completed although we are almost in the middle of the ongoing academic session. Due to this inordinate delay, aspiring students are spending sleepless nights praying for an end to the prevailing uncertainty over admissions. Going by present indications, the entire admission process will take some more time to be resolved, which means that regular classes will commence only after Diwali and students will be able to attend classes only for two months before the end of the first semester.
CUET begun with a bad start. Initially, it was decided that the process would be completed in July. To make the process seamless, the National Testing Agency (NTA) had decided to hold examinations in a couple of phases to provide a fair chance to each and every aspiring student to appear for the examination. But from day one, several complaints of various natures started pouring in from different quarters, including delay in issuing admit cards, mix up of questions, wrong information about the venues and failure to upload the question papers on time, etc. Due to these glitches, the exams had to be deferred, crushing the hopes of thousands of students despite no fault of their own. Initially, the examination centers were held responsible as NTA had alleged that the centers did not comply with the protocol adopted by the testing agency. Later with the surfacing of the internal sabotage theory, NTA has started an inquiry to nab the culprits. One can only hope that NTA will be able to identify the people who have bungled the entire examination process and punish them according to the law of the land. But the episode has exposed lack of preparation on the part of NTA. About 1.5 million students had appeared the examination which was held in over 550 centers all over the country. NTA should have been more alert to avoid hindrances to the process. It must be noted that the agency has been specially created to conduct such examinations. Thus, it should stand trial for its failure to smoothly conduct CUET.
The decision to hold a common entrance test had opened a new vista for the poor but meritorious students living in far-flung areas to compete with those who are considered privileged. But the unprofessional attitude of the authorities have crushed all their dreams. Now, these students are facing a dilemma of whether to abandon their dreams to study in a reputed institution or not. The situation is such that if they fail to crack CUET, there is every possibility that they may not get a chance to study in any other university this academic year, as admission processes in other educational institutions have already been completed. It is high time for the Education ministry to ensure that the future of the students remain unaffected.