SHILLONG, MAY 29: Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma on Wednesday claimed that around forty to fifty percent of the class XII passed students have not registered for Common University Entrance Test – Under Graduate (CUET-UG) held recently in the state.
This big revelation came after the union Ministry of Education, Government of India, has announced that admissions to colleges affiliated with Central Universities in Meghalaya and Nagaland have been exempted from the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for the 2024 academic year.
This decision applies to colleges affiliated with the central universities in these states, namely North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) in Meghalaya and Nagaland University in Nagaland. The Minister further said those students who want to study at the central university elsewhere can still use the CUET marks to get enrolled. He further said that the NTA couldn’t manage well the CUET examination in the state but the centre has provided a major relief to the state by exempting it.
Speaking to Mediapersons, Sangma said, “About 6,000 to 7000 students appeared for CUET-UG but many did not register. 40-50% of class XII passed students did not register for the CUET examination this year. This may be due to lack of communication, lack of awareness but I would advise my students to keep themselves updated and know what is happening in the country…”
The education minister has also informed that consecutively for the last three years, the state has been exempted from CUET. He said, “I would like to inform everybody that in coming years, we will not have justification to seek exemption again and again. For the colleges especially as they are affiliated to central university, therefore, our students and institutions must be prepared, must be sensitized and given awareness so that everybody should be aware and should register for CUET examination especially those who are going to take admission in institutions affiliated to central universities as well as those who are planning to go outside the state for higher education.
“The good thing is after appearing for CUET, we can understand how much we have studied and how we perform and we can understand the performance of the students in our institutions but however as a teacher before I joined politics, I would like to advise my young students, we should not fear appearing all such kinds of entrance examination, we should try for experience but to me yes for the central universities, CUET may be compulsory for the days to come,” he said.
“However, with respect to the state of Meghalaya, those institutions, which want to affiliate with the state university as many of the state institutions will be affiliated to the Captain Williamson Sangma State University and the work is under process,” Sangma added.
Earlier, sharing the information on ‘X’ platform, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma expressing his gratitude towards Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Sangma stated, “Happy to inform our students that admissions to affiliated colleges to Central University’s in Meghalaya have been exempted from CUET for this academic year. I thank Dharmendra Pradhan ji for his continuous support and understanding.”
This exemption was officially communicated by Gopal Kumar, Under Secretary, Ministry of Education.