UGC-NET 2024 examination dates overlap with Pongal: Tamil Nadu minister appeals for reschedule
CHENNAI: Because the harvest pageant of Pongal approaches in Tamil Nadu, Larger Training Minister Govi Chezhiaan has urged the Union authorities to reschedule the UGC-Nationwide Eligibility Check (UGC-NET) 2024. Scheduled between January 3 and 16, 2025, the examination coincides with the vital Pongal celebrations, which fall from January 14 to 16, 2025. The Minister expressed concern that holding the examination throughout these festive days would disrupt preparations for college students, particularly in Tamil Nadu, the place the pageant is a serious cultural occasion.
Writing to Union Training Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, Cheziaan mentioned that the Nationwide Testing Company below the Training Ministry has scheduled the UGC-NET December 2024 from January 3 to 16, 2025. Pongal pageant falls on January 14, 2025 and Thiruvalluvar Day (Mattu Pongal) is well known the next day and the Farmers Day (Uzhavar Thirunal– Kanum Pongal) on January 16.
Pongal was not merely a pageant, however an “emblem of our tradition and conventional heritage that spans over 3,000 years,” the Minister underscored and added that the Tamil Nadu authorities had already declared holidays from January 14 to 16, 2025 for the Pongal pageant.
“If the NET examination is held through the Pongal holidays, it’ll hamper the preparations for the examination in view of the celebrations,” he mentioned.
Additional, Cheziaan mentioned, “I due to this fact request your sort intervention to reschedule the UGC-NET examinations and different examinations to acceptable dates thereby guaranteeing that college students and students of Tamil Nadu and different states the place the harvest pageant is well known can seem for the examinations.”
In view of the Pongal pageant, the Chartered Accountants basis examination, January 2025 has been rescheduled, following a request by S Venkatesan, Lok Sabha MP from Tamil Nadu, the Minister identified.
