Many of the students who were supposed to take the NET (National Eligibility Test) on Sunday morning are in a fix as they have not received the hall tickets and hence are not aware of the centres.
The national-level entrance examination is for postgraduate candidates who wish to qualify for admission in Ph.D research and/or university level teaching jobs . Aspirants from various parts of the State came to the University of Madras on Saturday morning to get duplicate copies of their hall ticket. E. Arasi, from Tiruvallur, who is writing the NET for the second time, said, “Last year, I received my hall ticket ten days in advance. But this year, none of the nearly 40 teachers in my village and nearby villages have received them. We all came here two days earlier to get the duplicate copy and find out where the centre is.”
Many students said they received the hall tickets on Saturday after a long wait. The university office remained open too to issue duplicate copies to the candidates. “Since there was no communication, we thought the exam was cancelled. The centre is in Meenambakkam. She will reach by tomorrow morning,” exclaimed the relieved father of a student from Cuddalore.
The NET centre at the university gave out duplicate copies to many students who had arrived at the campus to complain. “We are working the whole night today. Candidates can even come tomorrow morning and get their tickets,” an official at the centre said. The exam on Sunday is to be taken by 15,000 candidates, nearly 2,000 more than last year.
The candidates say till last year, the entire correspondence was done through post and was more convenient, especially for those from rural areas who do not have access to computers. “This time, the notice was online, and we completely missed it. Since in my village, such letters come on Saturdays, I kept waiting,” S. Selvi, a teacher from Chidambaram said.
University officials, however, said the hall tickets were despatched on time and postal delay is the reason why many candidates have not received their hall tickets. “An entire set of hall tickets has been lost in postal sorting which has created all this mess,” an official said.
For the humanities and art disciplines, the test is administered by the University Grants Commission, while for science and engineering, it is jointly conducted by the UGC and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. UGC officials say the hall tickets were dispatched to the test centres over a month ago, from where they had to be authorised and posted to candidates.
