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Journalism of Courage
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will have to conduct the National Eligibility Test (NET) until further orders from the government, sources in the HRD Ministry told The Indian Express on Tuesday. The NET is held twice a year for the grant of junior research fellowship and eligibility for assistant professorship in universities and colleges. The CBSE and the University Grants Commission (UGC) have been locked in a tussle over the conduct of the entrance test, forcing the HRD Ministry’s intervention this week.
The Ministry is learnt to have decided that CBSE will conduct NET until the proposed National Testing Service (NTS) is set up by the government. Last year, CBSE wrote to the government expressing its inability to organise the NET, saying it was burdened with other tests such as the JEE-MAIN and NEET for under-graduate engineering and medical courses, respectively. “The Board has stretched its resources. For NET, we need to set question papers for 86 subjects. That apart, we incur a loss of Rs 5 crore every year for conducting this test which should ideally be borne by the UGC,” a source in school exam board said on condition of anonymity.
Read | Students demands UGC to issue forms for NET July exam
After the CBSE expressed inability, the HRD Ministry proposed an independent body called the NTS, dedicated to conducting entrance tests for higher education. The NET was conducted by the UGC till 2014. Repeated hiccups in the testing process forced the HRD Ministry to hand over the responsibility to CBSE. But with the school board expressing reluctance last year, a cloud of uncertainty descended over the test scheduled in July.
No notification regarding the exam has been issued yet. Last year, CBSE had made the notification on April 4 for the NET held on July 10. On Monday, students agitated in front of the UGC office and demanded that it release forms for the July exam immediately. A notification on the exam is expected in the next few days.
