look news india
The National Testing Agency (NTA), the country’s largest examination conducting body, which opens the doors of higher education, fellowships and prestigious government jobs to millions of youth and students across the country, has implemented a huge and important change in its application process. Every year, crores of students register themselves with this agency, which conducts the entrance and eligibility tests of higher educational institutions across the country, but many times, due to lack of attention to the last dates or last-minute server problems, many meritorious students missed filling the form. To solve this problem of students and to make the administrative system more smooth, NTA has now started a new system, under which if a candidate is not able to complete his application within the prescribed normal last date, then he will get a special opportunity to submit the form by paying a certain additional fee (Late Fee). The implementation of this new rule will provide great relief to those students who used to miss the deadline due to last minute commitments, although for this they will have to shell out a little more.
With which examinations has this new rule started and what is the whole process?
This new arrangement has been started with the recent release by NTA of the application procedures for important national level examinations, such as UGC NET and CSIR UGC NET, for the December cycle. According to the recently released official notice, if a candidate is not able to submit his/her online form by the normal scheduled last date, a special ‘Late Application Window’ will be opened by NTA. During this stipulated additional time period, students will be able to complete their application form, but for this they will have to pay an additional late fee of Rs 500 in addition to their normal examination fee. For example, if a candidate wishes to apply for the UGC NET December exam after the normal last date, he/she can successfully submit his/her form within the prescribed dates with an additional late fee of ₹500. This rule makes it clear that the agency is now adopting a completely strict approach towards discipline and adherence to fixed deadlines so that the entire schedule of examination management is completed on time.
Instructions for students and important advice to avoid last minute rush
After the introduction of this new rule of NTA, the discussion has intensified among coaching institutes, students and parents across the country that now there is a need to be extra careful while filling the form. Experts believe that although the option to fill the form with late fees will save students from wasting an entire year, it would always be wise to complete the registration process within the stipulated time frame to avoid additional financial burden. Many times, due to excessive traffic on the website in the last days, technical problems like payment getting stuck or server being down occur, due to which students have to face mental stress. The examination regulatory body has advised all the candidates to visit the official website and check the complete schedule of dates carefully and submit their forms on time to avoid any untoward situation.
Future examinations will also be affected, the examination system will be transparent and time bound.
Academicians and administrative analysts believe that this step of the National Testing Agency is a very commendable step towards making the entire examination system of the country more disciplined, transparent and timely. When the examination form process is completed within a fixed and strict scope, then there will be no administrative delay of any kind in issuing admit cards, allotment of examination centers and declaration of results. There is every possibility that similar guidelines and provisions of late fee will be strictly implemented in other big competitive examinations conducted by NTA in the coming days. Ultimately, it is important for every student appearing in these examinations, which are related to the future of crores of youth of the country, to be completely aware of these new rules, so that they can avoid any kind of financial loss or last-minute panic.