Technical glitches interrupt UGC NET in NIT Calicut; students demand re-test

The University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test (UGC NET) was suspended due to a technical glitch at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Calicut in Kattangal. 

A server failure stopped the exam from starting at the scheduled time of 9 am at the NIT Calicut centre and it stayed suspended until 12 pm. More than one hundred students who were supposed to write their exam at the centre therefore missed their chance and walked out of the exam hall in protest. The students raised questions about irresponsibility on the part of the authorities after the mishap. They demanded that the exam be postponed to another date for them, said a report by The New Indian Express. 

"Each candidate had been given different reporting times. There are students who came at 7:20 am also. After two hours, we were asked to attend the exam at 11:30 am. But we couldn't start the exam due to technical errors. The questions were not visible and the exam was paused. Later, at 12 pm, the authorities asked us to attend the exam again. The candidates panicked and then waited for more than three hours in the exam hall. Asking us to attend the exam after waiting for another three hours was unacceptable. When some students expressed our concerns, the organisers acted rudely," Sooriya AP, a native of Vallikkunnu, Malappuram and a UGC NET aspirant told TNIE.

The exam is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), which also conducts the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE). There were complains of server issues and other technical glitches at various centres across India during Session 1 of the JEE Main exam in June. After the incident at NIT Calicut, students are planning on sending a mass petition to the NTA and to the Ministry of Education to re-conduct the exam. 

NIT Calicut officials on their part have clarified in a statement that neither their infrastructure nor officials are responsible for the difficulties faced by the candidates. "After discussing with the NTA authorities the exam was restarted by 12 pm with 44 candidates and they were given extra time to cover for the hours they lost due to technical errors. The exam was completed by 3:15 pm. Some candidates boycotted the exam and demanded retest on another day. The NTA Observer contacted the NTA, New Delhi who rejected the demand for a retest. The 44 students finished the exam, without any further issues," NIT Calicut officials wrote in the statement.