[ Nellie N Manpoong ]
ITANAGAR, Apr 24: Technical institute students of Arunachal, from within the state as well as from outside, have raised the issue of their college and university examination dates clashing with the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) assistant engineer (AE) examination scheduled for 26 and 27 May.
While the North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology (NERIST) has its end-semester examinations for BTech, Mtech and PhD from 21 to 29 May, with one examination scheduled for 26 May, the APPSC also has its first technical paper examination scheduled for the same day.
Besides the National Institute of Technology here, some colleges outside the state, such as the Maharishi Dayanand University (Haryana), the Poojya Doddappa Appa College of Engineering (Karnataka), the North Maharashtra University, and the MVJ College of Engineering (Bengaluru), have their college examinations scheduled for the same week as the APPSC examination, with a difference of a day or two.
Speaking to this daily, a student of the NERIST said that the institute’s student union had appealed to the APPSC to reconsider the examination dates last Friday, soon after the dates were announced.
They reasoned that the AE examination clashes not only with the NERIST examination but also with examinations of other technical institutes outside the state and those students who have already applied for the examinations would not be able to rush back to appear for the examination here.
A student opined that the examination should have been held in February or March, and not during May-June as almost all technical institutes across the country have their examinations during this time.
“The examination should have either been held earlier, or should now be postponed, so that those who have applied can appear for them without any worries,” the NERIST student said.
However, many of those who have already completed their technical education have no qualms over the examination dates.
One aspiring candidate said, “We have been waiting for the APPSC examinations since long. We have no issues with the exam dates and we also cannot afford to keep waiting for the new candidates to be prepared.”
Similarly, those in colleges and universities are worried that it would take a long time for another such opportunity to appear.
To the question whether the students are ill-prepared for the AE examination, the students said there is no hiding that it is difficult to prepare for competitive examinations and study for their institutes’ examinations, as well.
“As technical students we study for each paper separately, but during competitive examinations we have to study all the papers at one go. It is mentally stressing us out,” said another student.
The commission is also handling several examinations together, which some opined could be the cause of scheduling the AE examination at an “inappropriate” time.
The All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) was also approached by the students to place their plea for reconsidering the examination dates to the APPSC.
Considering the difficulties of the students, the APPSU submitted a memorandum to the commission on 23 April.
APPSC Secretary Onit Panyang informed that the memorandum would be looked into by the commission members for consideration, and that the students would be updated in a day or two.
The APPSC issued a notification dated 17 April, 2018, declaring the examination dates for AE, RFO and JE examinations.
