Shillong, May 14: Commissioner & Secretary in-charge Education, Vijay Kumar Mantri, on Tuesday informed that the state government has promptly intervened and, with the support of the National Testing Agency (NTA), successfully identified additional examination centers for the conduct of the Common University Entrance Test (UG) 2025 within Meghalaya.

All affected students, who were initially allotted examination centers outside the state, were subsequently re-allotted centers within the state, Mantri said.

Stating that the state government has no role in the individual allotment of examination centers, the commissioner & secretary said it is important to note that the allotment of examination centers is managed entirely by the NTA using an automated software system. This system allocates centers based on the preferences submitted by each candidate. Candidates are required to indicate four preferred locations, and the system assigns a center strictly from among these choices. Therefore, if a student has been allotted a center outside Meghalaya, it is because they had selected that location as one of their preferences. This includes cases where students have been allotted centers as far as Port Blair.

A total of 12,685 students from Meghalaya have registered for CUET (UG) 2025. 7,742 candidates have been allotted centers within Meghalaya due to paucity of available centres. 4,943 candidates have been allotted centers outside Meghalaya. Of these, 4,654 candidates have been allotted centers in Assam. Only 289 candidates have been allotted centers outside both Meghalaya and Assam.

Among these, only 93 candidates are assigned centers outside the North East region. One student has been allotted Port Blair, based on it being his/her second choice.

There are currently 2 City Options in Meghalaya and 5 City Options in Assam. Since the system guarantees allocation from among the four preferred choices provided by each student, the students could have selected one of these 7 choices to avoid going out of the region.

On the delayed communication of the shortage of centers, Mantri said in the case of CUET (UG) 2025, the NTA did not communicate with the State Government in advance about any shortage of examination centers in the state. The matter only came to light at the last moment when several students were allotted centers outside Meghalaya.

He however informed that as soon as the issue was brought to the attention of the state government, over 800 additional computer nodes were swiftly identified across various institutions. The list of these potential venues has been shared with the NTA

The NTA has engaged Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) as the agency responsible for vetting and validating computer-based test centers. This is a necessary process that takes a few days, and the inspections of the proposed centers are currently underway.

Meanwhile, the commissioner & secretary said that the Education Department acknowledges the support of various schools and colleges across Meghalaya that have come forward to offer their computer labs for the conduct of NTA exams. However, a few institutions have not yet extended their support, leading to a shortfall in available computer-based exam centers.

He said the NTA is confident that all candidates scheduled to appear after 16th May 2025, who had opted for centers in Meghalaya but were allotted centers outside the state, will be re-allotted to centers within Meghalaya, subject to availability and completion of the validation process.

In this regard, the Education Department will confirm it in a day or two.

“The State Government remains committed to ensuring that every student from Meghalaya gets a fair and accessible opportunity to appear for national-level exams like CUET. Regular communication is being maintained with NTA, and further updates will be shared with the public as and when received,” he stated further.

Also Read: Manipur: Security forces arrest two for RSS office attack in Imphal East

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