Countrywide Protests by AISA against discontinuation of Bi-annual NET examination

AISA protested against the UGC and MHRD for reducing the scope of NET-JRF examination drastically by holding the NET exam once instead of twice a year and reducing the number of students qualifying NET from present 15% to a meagre 6%. AISA held protest demonstrations in different Indian cities namely Patiala, Chandigarh, Delhi, Allahabad, Lucknow, Ara, Darbhanga and Kolkata.

Today AISA protested in front of UGC head office in New Delhi. AISA demanded that the chairperson of UGC should come and talk with the student directly. Delhi police threatened the protestors as per their usual style. But the protestors held their ground. It forced UGC to send an additional secretary to come and talk with protestors. The questions that are asked to the UGC representative are

a) What happened to the June-July NET exam?

b) Why do the number of NET qualifying students being decreased from 15% to 6 % ?

c) Why did the UGC take the decisions without a proper notification?

d) Do the number of JRFs also being decreased?

The additional secretary quite naively told that June-July NET exam will happen but it is being postponed slightly.It is in common knowledge that notification for November exam is already out. The second question is answerd in a vague manner where she claimed in effect number of NET qualifying students will increase. She told that the issue of conduction of exams are not being discussed with UGC and it is under the purview of MHRD and CBSE. She told that no final decision has been taken on conduction of bi-annual NET examination. See the video here.

AISA demanded that a proper notification should be published on the UGC website clarifying the confusions around bi-annual NET and the 6% cap within 1 week. AISA resolved to go on a bigger agitation after looking into UGC’s clarification.