The tests will be held between September 6 and 11. (Express Archive)With examination centres in just 24 cities across the country, candidates for the Delhi University Entrance Test, which is set to start on Sunday, are finding that getting to their designated centres is a challenge.
With around 2.2 lakh candidates for entrance exams to nine undergraduate, all postgraduate, and M.Phil and Ph.D courses in Delhi University, the tests are scheduled to take place between September 6 and 11 and will be conducted by the National Testing Agency.
Some candidates say they might not be able to write the exam at all. The parent of an M.Sc Chemistry aspirant from Kozhikode said the long travel distance to the centre, combined with the risk of missing out on other entrance exams, will not be worth it. “In all of Kerala, the only examination centre is in Thiruvananthapuram, around 400 kilometres away. Perhaps another centre in north or central Kerala would have made it more feasible. The journey will be difficult, and if anyone at the centre turns out to be positive, she will have to go into quarantine and miss entrance exams to other universities including University of Hyderabad. She feels that it is not worth it, and will most probably not be writing the exam,” said her father.
With Varanasi as the only entrance exam centre in UP, an aspirant from Aligarh has been allotted Delhi as his exam centre. “I want the exam to be postponed, or at least for there to be a second chance for those who might not be able to write the exam. I have my exam on September 11 and I don’t know how I will reach the exam centre safely while Covid cases are still rising,” he said.
Many of those who are going to appear in the exams for postgraduate courses are those who had studied their undergraduation in Delhi University itself and had selected Delhi as their exam centre, but are now in their home states.
Sreejith, who has his MA Political Science entrance exam on September 6, boarded a train from Kerala to Delhi to be able to write his exam. “We had selected our exam centres at the time of registration and we had thought we would be back in Delhi at the time of the exam. Since we were not given the choice of changing our exam centre when the date of the exam was selected, I have no choice but to travel to Delhi. I’ll stay with some friends but my parents are not happy about it. I have many friends who are not able to travel,” he said.