Students miss engg entrance for third time

After goof-ups on two previous occasions, miscommunication over centres for All-India Engineering Entrance Examination now denies 80 students chance to appear for test

GOOF-UPS at the All-India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) never seem to end. After failing to write exams on two earlier occasions thanks to miscommunication and carelessness of officials, about 80 of the 123 students who were to appear for the test have missed the boat again.


Where do we go now? Students show their hall tickets for the AIEEE
after finding themselves at the wrong centre yesterday. Pic/Nitin Lavate

Confusion over the exam centres was the reason this time. The AIEEE was first scheduled to take place on May 1. On the day of the exam, it was delayed by a few hours after reports of a paper leak in Uttar Pradesh. Later, when the exam did begin, its timing clashed with the entrance examination of the Armed Forces Medical College. This made the AIEEE officials announce that those wishing to appear for the AFMC entrance can write the AIEEE on May 8.

However, the officials again delayed the exam and a fresh date of May 11 was given to students. Those wishing to appear for the entrance were asked to register online or call on designated numbers. Accordingly, 123 students registered, but of them only 43 received communication about their exam centre.

Yesterday, students from as far away as Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Kolhapur and other rural areas in the state who had come for the exam reported to their old centres at Narhe, Sinhagad, among others, assuming that the centres had remained unchanged. An aspirant, Sagar Diwate, who had come from Ahmednagar after registering himself online, showed MiD DAY a copy of his receipt received on May 9 which had the original centre (in his case Air Force Station Lohegaon) printed on it.

"When I went there they told me my centre had changed to DAV school in Aundh. I raced from there to my new centre, and I don't even know the roads here. By the time I reached, I was late; it was past 9 am," he said. Diwate said he wasn't allowed into the exam hall. While Diwate at least had managed to register himself, some were not even as fortunate as that.u00a0Baramati resident Abhilash Kokare came to know of the re-registration procedure only after the last date had passed.

"No communication was sent to us, I knew of the re-registration only through the local newspapers which carried the advertisement on May 6.u00a0 The date for re-registration was May 5, and I could not register myself since the registration was closed," said Kokare. After the exam centre officials refused to allow students in to write the exam, the parents of these students called the police to help them gain entry. But this did not help either. Finally, the parents wrote a letter of complaint to the CBSE.

The Other Side
Authorities at DAV school and the observer of CBSE who had come to supervise the entrance exam refused to comment. CBSE officials in New Delhi also remained unavailable for comment, despite repeated phone calls.

(With inputs from Alifiya Khan)