Pandemic curbs cited for lag in setting up exam centres
Some applicants for the National Aptitude Test in Architecture (NATA) have claimed that they got their admit cards for Sunday’s exam very late.
The national-level undergraduate test conducted by the Council of Architecture (COA) is for admission to five year B. Arch and B. Planning programmes, except those in the National Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Technology. It is held in two rounds, and Sunday’s test is the second round. Kerala has 20 centres, except in Wayanad and Kasaragod, and thousands are writing the test.
A student from Kozhikode told The Hindu on Saturday that the applicants from Malabar were unable to download the admit card from the NATA website till late in the evening. Earlier, Vinod Kumar K.K., an applicant, tweeted, “No link to download admit card for tomorrow’s NATA exam for Kerala students. Irresponsible approach by @CouncilofArchi1. Requesting for immediate action @EduMinOfIndia@dwould pradhanbjp@PMOIndia@Republic”. Another user who tagged Congress MP Shashi Tharoor says “Tomorrow is NATA exam and the Admit card is still not released. We are facing a pandemic and students are anxious due to this”.
The exam is held in two shifts from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. The applicants should reach the centre an hour before the test starts. Since Kerala has a weekend lockdown on Saturday and Sunday and there is no public transport, the applicants are clueless as to what to do. Though a few of them could make use of private transport, without the admit card and details about exam centres, they did not know what to do. An applicant said he got the admit card only after 6 p.m. on Saturday.
Council representatives, however, have reportedly told the applicants that there had been some delay in setting up the centres owing to pandemic restrictions. Those who do not have the facility to download the admit card could do it at the exam centres. But students from Wayanad and Kasaragod are wondering how they will reach the centres if details are known late in the night.
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