NTA to reconduct JNU entrance exam on 28 October for MPhil, PhD candidates who faced technical difficulties

The National Testing Agency (NTA) responsible to conduct the entrance exams of various institutes, including the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), announced that it will be reconducting the entrance exam for admission to MPhil and PhD in Historical Studies at JNU on 28 October.Some candidates, according to the officials, had faced some technical issues while attempting the computer-based exam while taking the test in the evening shift on 6 October.According to Hindustan Times, the testing agency sent out text messages to every student informing them of the retest. The message read, “Dear candidate, due to technical reason the Computer Based Test (CBT) for the programs of study of JNUEE 2020, MPhil and PhD Historical Studies... requires re-examination. While we regret the inconvenience, we intend to provide a fair and equal opportunity again to all candidates who appeared for the above-mentioned programs of study.”The note also talked about a revised admit card that will be necessary for the candidates to procure to sit in the exams. Without mentioning any particular date, the message said that the new hall tickets will be available via the JNU-NTA website “shortly”.The publication has cited NTA director-general Vineet Joshi to report that the revised examination will be conducted for around 700 to 800 students.However, the JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) has brought several other issues to the notice of the varsity, reported The Times of India. The body has claimed that there were several questions in a single paper that displayed wrong responses in the answer key released by NTA JNU. The JNUSU also said that even though the answer key was supposed to be accessible till Thursday, many students were not able to download them as the site said that the key was not available.The body has also brought attention to the fact that the cost of challenging any question is Rs 1,000 and it becomes difficult for students to challenge when there are multiple wrong answers in a single paper. Citing all these difficulties, JNUSU has requested NTA to work on the feedback received and update the answer key accordingly.Students also demanded that the NTA extends the date of challenging answers, remove the cost of challenge and respond to the emails and calls from students in the matter.