National Eligibility Test

263. SHRI SANJAY KAKA PATIL:

DR. SANJEEV KUMAR SINGARI:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government has taken note that the technical glitches experienced by students across several centres while taking the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) National Eligibility Test (NET) in its last cycle that caused delays, if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether the Government has also noticed that the time wasted due to all the delays was not compensated for as it is a computer-based test as per students;

(c) the steps taken to ensure that such issues do not come up in the next testing cycle to be conducted in the months of February-March of this year, if so, the details thereof; and

(d) whether the Government has also directed the UGC to disburse information regarding test centres and exam dates in a timely manner since last year as candidates were informed of the exam dates only four days prior to their exam and they received their admit cards with information of their exam centres very late, if so, the details thereof?

Part (a) to (d) A Statement is laid on the table of the House.

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (d) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *263 ANSWERED ON 20.03.2023 ASKED BY SHRI SANJAY KAKA PATIL, DR. SANJEEV KUMAR SINGARI, HON’BLE MEMBER(S) OF PARLIAMENT REGARDING “NATIONAL ELIGIBILITY TEST”.

(a) & (b) The Examination of UGC-NET December 2021 & June 2022 (merged cycles) was conducted for 9,01,221 Candidates in CBT Mode in 4 Phases in 33 Shifts across the country. During this examination, there were technical glitches affecting the examination on 9th July 2022 (Shift-1) at 07 Exam Centers involving 650 Candidates. The re-exam was held on 29th September 2022 for these candidates smoothly and they had full allotted time of 03 Hours.

(c) The Exam Centres were audited and exam servers were strengthened before the conduct of the exam in 05 Phases and 32 Shifts for 8,34,537 Candidates during February-March 2023. The Examination has been completed on 16th March 2023.

(d) NTA had announced the Schedule of UGC-NET June 2023 to be held between 13th June 2023 and 22nd June 2023 on 05th January 2023. However, in order to avoid any tie-up with any Exam Centre by/ on behalf of any candidate for any malpractice/ impersonation, the Exam Centres are declared to the candidates through Public Notice few days before the Exam. However, the Exam Cities are intimated to the candidates much in advance, to enable them to make necessary arrangements, such as, travel and accommodation, wherever required.

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