The Meghalaya government on Tuesday said that it remains committed to ensuring that every student from the State gets a fair and accessible opportunity to appear for national-level exams like Common University Entrance Test (CUET).
The government assurance followed after 4,943 of the 12,685 students from Meghalaya who have registered for CUET (UG) 2025 were allotted examination centers outside the state, including one at Port Blair.
The majority — 4,654 candidates — have been assigned to centres in Assam. On the other hand 289 students have their centers outside both Meghalaya and Assam.
Outside the northeast there would be 93 students taking the exam and one student in Port Blair, based on their own listed preference.
“The State Government promptly intervened and, with the support of the National Testing Agency (NTA), successfully identified additional examination centers within Meghalaya. All affected students were subsequently re-allotted centers within the state,” Commissioner & Secretary Education Department, Vijay Kumar Mantri said.
Mantri said the allotment of examination centers is managed entirely by the NTA using an automated software system which is based strictly on the four preferred locations submitted by each candidate during registration.
“Those students allotted centres outside the state were based on their preferred first, second, third or fourth locations,” he said.
Meghalaya has two city options for CUET exam centers and Assam has five. The state government has now identified over 800 additional computer nodes across various educational institutions. The list of these potential venues has been submitted to the NTA.
“Since the validation of the proposed centers is being carried out by Tata Consultancy Services, (NTA’s official partner for vetting and approving computer-based testing venues,) the department has urged students to wait till the validation process is over,” Mantri said.
Meanwhile, the NTA has assured that all candidates, allotted centers outside Meghalaya, and scheduled to appear after May 16 will be re-allotted to centers within the state after the validation process.