Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat
J&K Public Service Commission (PSC) has been in news again for its alleged favoritism and lack of transparency . Mainstream media as well as social media has been criticizing the commission for its wrongdoings. The Commission has been caught on the wrong foot as the question paper for recently concluded screening test for 10 +2 lecturers was allegedly copy pasted from a guide called Popular Master Guide (NET ,SET). The said English literature book is from R Gupta Series authored by H S Bhatia. I myself closely went through the screening test paper of A series and found that 90 % of the Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) match with the MCQs of R Gupta series English literature book from page 3 to 10.
It is important to mention here that J&K Public Service Commission (PSC) uploads syllabus on its website before any written exam /screening test is conducted. Syllabus has been prescribed for the aspiring 10 +2 lecturers in different streams that includes English literature subject also, but when these candidates saw the question paper , they could hardly see questions that were part of the prescribed syllabus. It was later on found that multiple choice questions (MCQs) were directly copied from R Gupta’s English literature book. From page number 3 to 10 of R Gupta’s English literature book , 90 % questions were copied. There are some typographic mistakes in the R Gupta’s book , to the utter shock of students , those typo errors can also be seen in the English paper set by the so called experts identified by Public Service Commission (PSC) .
Mockery of Exam :
The way PSC conducted the written test for the post of lecturers (10+2)was not only a mockery of this examination but I would call it a complete murder of career of our youth. PSC being the highest authority in the state for conducting examinations for different gazette services, has completely tarnished its image by copying even multiple choice questions (MCQs) from a book. Whom shall hardworking and bright students believe now ? It is ample clear that experts in English literature have not at all set up the question paper for screening test , while on the other hand PSC claims of paying such experts their fees for the work (setting papers) which they never did. To ensure transparency and equal opportunity for all candidates there should be some mechanism in place within the PSCvis a vis setting of question papers. As per the norm, most of the examination bodies set question papers independent of a particular book so that all candidates get a fair chance of answering the questions. It was a shock for the candidates to see the question paper. From the very beginning questions have been copied from Page No. 3 to page 10)of the book , namely R.Gupta’s English Literature for NET/SET. Not only have the questions been copy-pasted from the said book, but the options for each question have also been copy-pasted in such a manner that they haven’t even been reshuffled. It was again an utter shock to note that typo errors found in the said book were not rectified and instead copy-pasted. The book (R Gupta’s English Literature) from which the 90 % questions were copied by PSC has a typo error at question number 3. It says who wrote Priest’s Nun’s tale ?but actually it is who wrote Nun’s Priest’s tale? The question paper from series A has copied the same question having typo error. Had some expert in English literature set up the question paper , he would have never committed such a gross mistake. This clearly indicates that some lower rung officials of PSC have set up the paper may be in connivance with the experts. The matter has to be probed
Conclusion
It is not only the aspirants for10 +2 lecturer post who are complaining about copy pasting of questions , but the candidates who appeared for Urdu and Physics lecturer’s exam (10+2) also allege that same thing has happened with them. Recently newly appointed Chief Minister of Assam SarbanandaSonowal told the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) to publish results (online) of all exams within 3 hours of the conduct of the respective exams and to do a video-recording of the entire interview process. Similarly Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) Chairman DrLalit K Panwar has also initiated some reforms within RPSC. The Chairman keeps RPSC members unaware about interview process in advance and the member who has to be part of the interview panel is only informed an hour before. In addition to it RPSC has also started video recording the whole interview process. If PSC can’t frame a question paper independent of a particular book, doesn’t it raise doubts about PSC’s credibility? What if one candidate had just read the few beginning pages of the said book and another had burnt midnight oil studying scores of other books? Is this the justice ? Some candidates allege that some touts in JKPSC had already informed some selected candidates that questions would be asked from R Gupta’s English literature book.
After BOPEE scam in J&K and Vypam scam in Madhya Pradesh the touts find it difficult to leak the PSC papers now, it seems they use other these kind of tactics wherein questions are copy pasted from a particular book that too from selected pages and candidates who pay them are informed about it. Chairman of J&K Public Service Commission (JKPCS) Chairman PSC has to probe into this issue so that black-sheep and touts within the PSC are identified , exposed and prosecuted.
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