Telangana gets only one centre for NET

Hyderabad: Telangana State has again got a raw deal in the National Eligibility Test (NET) to be held by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in December this year. The exam will be conducted in just one city – Hyderabad -- in the entire state. NET will be held in three cities in Andhra Pradesh while even smaller states will have two to three cities hosting the exam.

NET is held by the CBSE on behalf of University Grants Commission (UGC), it being the qualifying exam for Junior Research Fellowships (JRF) in prestigious national scientific institutions and for subsequent admission to PhD programme. NET scores are also used as a criterion by Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) to hire employees. NET scores are also a requirement for selection to jobs of assistant professors in universities.

NET will be held on December 27 and applications can be sent till November 1. The last NET was held in June last. Despite calls for inclusion of more cities from TS for holding the exam, the CBSE has stuck to just Hyderabad. An estimated 15,000 aspirants appear for the exam in Hyderabad.

In AP, Visakhapatnam, Guntur and Tirupati will host the exam while even Chhattisgarh has two cities, Raipur and Bilaspur, holding the exams. Even for JEE Main, Chhattisgarh had just three centres this year, while TS had five cities as centres.

Sources in the know of things said Warangal could have been added as another city centre from the state in the NET exam but its proximity to Hyderabad and Guntur could have worked against it.

“Apart from Hyderabad and Warangal, there is no other education hub in Telangana. In AP, all the three cities are distinct education hubs. Warangal should be added to the list,” a senior Professor from Osmania University said.