4 days ago
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Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission Office (UPPSC) has withdrawn the decision to conduct UPPCS exam in two shifts. At the same time, it has been said to form a committee regarding the Review Officer/Assistant Review Officer (RO/ARO) examination-2023. 20 thousand students were standing in front of the gate of the Commission in Prayagraj for 4 days, the government had to bow down to their demands.
However, a student protesting in a conversation with Dainik Bhaskar called it ‘half victory’. He said,
Issuing the notice of the Commission is an illusion, a pretense.
Students are still standing outside the Commission on the issue of RO/ARO exam. They are hooting by blowing horns and banging bottles. Students are adamant that the Commission should give a clear decision on RO/ARO also. Students are saying that their own officers will be in the committee. If the movement ends then any decision will be taken against the students only.
In the morning the students had tried to enter the premises of the Commission by breaking the barricades.
Commission said PCS exam will be held in one shift, committee will be formed on RO/ARO
On the fourth day of the students’ protest, Commission Secretary Ashok Kumar came out of the office at around 4 pm on Thursday afternoon. He said, ‘UPPSC will conduct the prelims exam in a day. The Commission will form a committee for RO/ARO Examination-2023. This committee will consider all the aspects and present its detailed report.
The PCS exam was scheduled to be held on December 7 and 8, while the RO/ARO exam was proposed to be held on December 22 and 23 in multiple shifts. From Ashok Kumar’s statement it is understood that the examinations have been postponed for now. Now their new dates will be announced.
‘Hung in limbo, we are not happy with the decision’
Naveen Tiwari, one of the students who led the movement in Prayagraj, said, ‘We students are not happy with this decision. This decision is to keep us in limbo, not to hear us.
Naveen says, ‘Now the examination will be conducted in a single shift, this is a good thing, but till now we have not been told what will be its date.’
Picture of students protesting.
Forming committee for RO/ARO, contempt of court
Naveen, sitting on the dharna, says that the students have questions in their minds regarding the formation of a committee for the RO/ARO examination. Students do not know yet what decision the committee will take and when the examination will be conducted.
Accusing the new commission, he says,
RO/ARO is a reexam. This had already happened in February and then it was taken in one shift, so why now does the Commission want to get it done in two shifts? This is a matter of contempt of court. The Commission is contempt of the court.
The students were demanding that the exam be conducted in a single shift.
‘The commission is conspiring to weaken the movement’
Students say that the Commission is now assuring the students to form a committee for the RO/ARO exam, later it will conduct the exam in two shifts. If the exam is held in two shifts, normalization will have to be implemented. When the Commission has accepted that normalization will not be done in PCS, then why is it not implementing it in RO/ARO.
Picture of today’s demonstration of 14th November.
These Mango Student No Are, commission Of Front From will move away No
On one hand, the students involved in the protest say, ‘The students sitting in front of the Commission are not common, they are such students who have missed reaching the Commission by one or two numbers. Students understand very well what the Commission is doing. Right now the students are mulling over today’s decision, the movement will not end yet. We will take the decision of RO/ARO only.
Naveen says, ‘Students will not go anywhere until the decision on RO/ARO is taken. The PCS exam was to be held in December, so right now it is not clear whether the exam has been canceled or it will be held as planned on December 7-8. Therefore the students will continue the movement.
Akhilesh’s taunt – Due to pride the government is accepting half the demand
Deputy CM Brajesh Pathak said on the protest by the candidates regarding the UPPSC exam, ‘The problem has been resolved and our government is with the students. The demands of the candidates have been accepted.
However, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has taken a dig at the decision of the UP government. He wrote on These are the intelligent youth of today, the government cannot catch them in a tizzy. When one exam can be done then why not the other. Defeat in elections is the real cure for BJP. When BJP goes, ‘jobs’ will come.
Student agitation continues on UP PCS and RO/ARO: 5 allegations like rigging through normalization; Commission ready to consider percentile method
Students’ agitation continues in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh against Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC). The candidates are demanding to conduct the Review Officer (RO), Assistant Review Officer (ARO) and Provincial Civil Services (PCS) examinations on the same day as before. The students who took to the streets are against conducting exams in more than one shift and the process of normalization through percentile method. Students are even alleging that the Commission wants to help its favorites through normalization.
Students are making 5 allegations against the Commission regarding normalization and more than one shift-
1. Normalization applied suddenly without any prior notice:
According to Naveen Tiwari, one of the students who led the movement in Prayagraj, ‘There is no mention of normalization and percentile method in the release of UPPSC-2024 released on January 1, 2024. In that release it has been said that the merit list of pre-examination will be made on the basis of marks obtained in General Studies. Recently the Supreme Court had given its decision. Suddenly implementing normalization is not only against the decision of the Supreme Court but also against Article 14 of the Constitution.
Naveen says,
It’s like changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game.
Students protesting outside the commission gate
2. The mathematical process of normalization is wrong for humanities subjects:
The process of normalization is used to remove differences in the difficulty level of questions. In humanities subjects (non-technical subjects), which question is easy and which is difficult will not be decided by the formula of statistics.
Giving the example of two questions, Naveen says – Suppose two different questions related to Mahatma Gandhi are asked in two papers –
- In which year did Gandhiji preside over the national convention of Congress?
- In which year did Gandhiji give this slogan ‘Gandhi may die but Gandhism will live’?
In these two questions, which formula will be able to decide which question is easy and which question is difficult?
Naveen says that the process of normalization is implemented in exams like NEET and JEE, but those exams are for admission in colleges of higher studies. And after giving the UPPSC exam, they become gazetted officers directly. Both cannot be weighed on the same scale. The Public Service Commission of any state in the entire country does not implement normalization in humanities subjects. Even in UPSC this is not applicable.
3. UPPSC not able to implement normalization:
Naveen tells that earlier UPPSC used to release the answer key of pre exam. If the candidates got any question wrong, they would send them the correct answer. Every year 7 to 12 questions were removed from the paper. After that the revised answer key was released. This was a transparent system, which has now been discontinued.
After the result of PCS-J 2024 exam was declared, candidate Shravan Pandey had filed a petition in Allahabad High Court alleging swapping of his copy. After this, the High Court had directed UPPSC to present the answer sheets of six question papers of the petitioner in the court on June 5, 2024. In July, the Commission had admitted in the court that 50 copies were changed in the PCS-J 2024 Mains Exam. After this, action was taken against many employees and officers of the Commission. Naveen Tiwari says,
The Commission has not been able to adopt the process of normalization because of lack of transparency and probity. Copies are exchanged in the main examination. The Commission wants to unfairly benefit its favorites by changing the copy after normalization.
4. UPPSC citing shortage of exam centers as an excuse to increase shifts:
The candidates sitting on strike against the Commission say that there are total 75 districts in Uttar Pradesh and the examination is being conducted only in 41 districts. If the intentions of UPPSC were right then the examination could have been conducted on a single day and in a single shift. Before this, the exam was always conducted in a single shift.
Naveen says that UPPSC’s argument that the examination with more than 5 lakh candidates will be held in more than one shift is also wrong because according to the instructions of the Uttar Pradesh government, UPPSC’s examination is a specific category examination and the specific category examination will be conducted with 5 lakh candidates. Exempted from the above rules.
5. Exam in two shifts will increase the possibility of paper leak, the matter will drag on in court:
Candidates say that this year Uttar Pradesh Police Constable recruitment took place in several shifts. His paper got leaked. It is also important to note that the RO paper on 11th February 2024 was leaked from the printing press and not from the examination centre. Talking about the lack of exam centers without improving it is like treating the brain for stomach disease. According to Naveen, luck will work in the process of normalization, not the hard work of the students. Due to normalization, a candidate who scores less marks in one shift may get a merit place in the final result, while a candidate who scores more marks in the second shift may be stopped from selection. With this, the candidates will challenge the result of the examination in the court.
Commission ready to consider suggestions of candidates on percentile method
Commission Secretary Ashok Kumar says,
Our guidelines are that now centers will be set up only in government and aided colleges. We conducted a survey in all the districts of the state. We did not get sufficient number of centers to conduct the exam in a day. In such a situation, we had to take the decision to conduct the exam in two shifts in 41 districts. It was not possible to conduct the exam in one day.
On the allegations regarding implementation of normalization, Ashok Kumar says,
We had constituted a committee under the chairmanship of the former Chief Statistician of the Government of India. Experts suggested us the percentile method, which we are adopting. We have gone out and talked to the students many times and said that if you find any method better than our percentile method then please suggest it to us, we are ready to adopt it.
We questioned Ashok Kumar on the students’ allegation that an attempt can be made to benefit their favorite candidates with the help of the process of normalization. On this Ashok Kumar says, ‘Our process follows Article 14. There is no favoritism of any kind in this. The entire exam system is computer system based. Every roll number is coded. No one knows which copy of which roll number belongs to which person.
We also asked that the process of normalization is not adopted in any other commission’s exam. There is a difference between exams like NEET and UPPSC exams. On this Ashok says that this process is based on the guidelines of the government. The Commission is adopting the percentile method based on the suggestions of experts. We are adopting percentile method only in the interest of students.
Can the exam be canceled due to student protests?
Naveen Tiwari says,
Commission Chairman Sanjay Shrinet is said to be out of the city, whereas he is present here. He does not want to meet the students. Our protest will continue until the Commission reconsiders more than one shift.
Students are adamant on their demand to meet Sanjay Shrinet.
Commission Secretary Ashok Kumar says,
The entire process of the examination is progressing on the basis of the rules and policies of the Commission. The Commission has adopted this system only in the interest of the candidates and for the quality of the examination. Still, we have sought suggestions from students. We are ready to consider them. Whatever issues come before the Commission, the Commission studies them in depth and resolves them.
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