After multiple attempts at campaigning online on social media platforms such as Twitter for a second attempt at the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET) 2022, third attempt at the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains 2022 and against the mismanagement during the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) 2022, students activists will now hold a "symbolic protest" at Jantar Mantar, Delhi after August 15 for the same.
Citing technical glitches and other issues during the NEET UG and JEE Mains exams that were conducted in June and July, students have been using hashtags such as #JEEMains2022, #JEEStudentsWantJustice, #JEEMainsThirdAttemptForAll, #NEETUGSecondAttempt, #SecondAttemptForNEETUG and #ExtraAttemptNEETUG on Twitter to draw attention to their issues. Student activists from the All India Students’ Union plan to peacefully protest at Jantar Mantar with other student activists after August 15 after they obtain permission from the police.
Issues during the exams
Vaibhav Dinkar, National Coordinator of the AISU said that multiple students have reached out to them complaining about the problems they faced. He said, “During the first attempt at the JEE Mains 2022 exam that was conducted from June 25 to 30, several students were allotted centres that weren’t chosen by them in the first place.” He added that there were technical glitches during the exam as well. “Screens were frozen for around 15 to 30 minutes and extra time was not granted to these students,” he said. In some cases, the timer wasn’t visible on students’ screens. However, he added that these problems weren’t just limited to the first attempt at the exam — it was prevalent even during the second attempt.
Although student associations such as AISU have made multiple physical representations to the government demanding action on the issue, they haven’t received any response yet, said Dinkar.
With NEET UG 2022 on the other hand, in one instance, students who appeared for the examination at a centre in Rajasthan’s Sriganganagar district in July, alleged that they were made to write the exam twice because of a question-paper mix-up, according to reports. They said that question papers meant for Hindi and English medium students were interchanged mistakenly. The incident had also resulted in students and parents protesting in front of the exam centre, according to reports. “We also learnt that different NEET exam papers were given in India and abroad, which goes against the rules,” said Saurav Saha, a student activist. Hence, a combined peaceful protest will take place from tomorrow, August 16, he added.
Additionally, the way the CUET UG 2022 exams have been conducted recently has also invited criticism from students and activists. In some situations, many students reported that they turned up for the exam on day one, August 4, at their respective centres only to be informed that the exam was postponed at the very last moment. Secondly, on the first day itself, the second shift of the exam was cancelled across all centres and postponed to August 12, with the officials from the National Testing Agency (NTA) citing administrative and technical reasons for the same.
“The NTA has failed to conduct any of the exams properly, hence we are demanding an extra attempt for all these exams,” said Pawan Bhadana, a student activist. He added that the protest will only be held after obtaining permission from the police tomorrow, August 16.
