As part of All India Students Association’s (AISA) nationwide call, student activists held protests, Save NET exam, across the country. This included protests in Delhi, Chandigarh, Allahabad and Uttar Pradesh.
The students were protesting against UGC’s decision to replace the bi-annual National Eligibility Test (NET) with a yearly exam. July 12 has been set as the deadline for addressing students’ concerns.
AISA’s Delhi protest was held outside the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) headquarters. As the protest began AISA activists raised slogans demanding UGC’s chairperson to come out of the building. A group of 50-odd policemen were deployed outside the UGC gates.
When the UGC Additional Secretary finally came out, the police allowed four students’ representatives to cross the barricade to meet her.
Various students organisations have been protesting against CBSE’s June 6 notification, which replaced the biannual exam with an annual test, now scheduled for November 19, 2017. This is the third AISA protest this month seeking clarifications about the UGC’s decisions on NET.
However, the Additional Secretary didn’t comment on the issue and said she was not a part of the committee that schedules NET. Students demanded for an increase in the number of students who qualify the NET exam. “The number of students who qualify NET exam has reduced from 15 per cent to 6 per cent,” said Kawalpreet Kaur, president of AISA’s DU wing.
The Additional Secretary denied this claim. She said, “Instead of a decline in the number of people who qualified the examination, there has been an increase from 5 per cent to 6 per cent.” She promised that a notification for the same will be up on the official website soon.
In a June 6 report the Times of India said the NET will be mandatory for entrance to state universities, which are also called category 3 universities. “This will take away opportunities from students who wish to research in state varsities,” said Shashi Tripathy, an AISA activist and JNUSU councillor.
Student representatives will intensify their protests if no decision is taken by the said deadline.
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