Taking students for granted
Every time the students community is scheduled to appear in any competitive examination a needless controversy is generated as the exam centres for these competitive exams are being located outside the valley for these hapless students.
All this is happening despite repeated assurances by the state administration that adequate centres of all national level exams will be setup in the Valley. This time around also the National Testing of Agency (NTA) has once again set up exam centres of Valley students outside Kashmir.
The centres for students who are appearing in the National Eligibility Test (NET) which is scheduled the between June 20 and 28 have been designated in Jammu and some other northern states, leading to a crisis like situation for the students.
The exam centres of more than 200 students have been set up outside the valley despite the tall claims of governor’s administration that no student will have to move outside the valley to appear in any national level examination.
The aggrieved students said they had given the option for centres available in Kashmir but according to them NTA has designated their centre outside the valley.
This is not for the first time that such a situation has emerged. The NTA has been ignoring the geographical limitations of the region as travelling to Jammu and any other state for appearing in examinations is a herculean task for the valley students.
The travel to Jammu and other states involves travel for days together and that too at a much greater risk and other concerns. The students have to arrange for their stay as well and this also costs them a fortune. Besides, risking travel for days together the students face loss of precious time and efforts that they could otherwise spare for preparing for such exams.
The dejected students have also time and again said that the designation of exam centre outside the valley disturbs their preparation schedule because they get deviated from the exams while making plans for moving out to sit in the exams.
Notably, from the past one year, there has been a massive outcry against the NTA- the autonomous exam conducting body constituted by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to conduct all national level exams.
The NTA has caused inconveniences for the valley aspirants by setting up their centres outside the Valley or in far off states.
Earlier in February, the Valley students were left without exam centres for NEET, GATE and other national level competitive exams causing inconvenience to the students. A batch of 500 students missed GATE-2019 exams owing to the failure of the NTA authorities to set up adequate exam centres in the Valley. The exam centres of these students were setup outside the state.
Though after last year’s harrowing experiences the students were assured that such issue will not creep up again, but the ground situation tells a different story. The administration should wake up on this crucial issue and end this traumatizing experience of the students once for all by directing the NTA and other exam conducting authorities to ensure that exam centres are fixed in Valley for the student’s based here.
KV Network
