GANGTOK, 08 Oct: Sikkim Public Service Commission (SPSC) conducts examinations for induction into the State services and given that these exams have been happening only about once every five years or so, it is expected that they are carried out flawlessly. This is important since these examinations are considered the only opportunity for an aspiring candidate to prove their mettle and get into the state administrative services. SPSC however pulled off the examination held last Sunday in less than smooth manner, its question papers marred not only by poor production [they appeared photocopied and were stapled together] but also errors and lapses which could have been avoided if only they had been put together more carefully.
Speaking to NOW! today, Chairman, SPSC, ML Arrawatia, explained that the Commission functions in a very fair, transparent and impartial manner and hence maintained absolute secrecy in setting the question papers which is why the errors were detected only when the question papers were opened on the day of the examination.
“The question papers are not allowed to be read by any of the officers of the Commission and the examination section can only put page numbers and brief instructions on first page of the question paper,” states a press release issued by SPSC today, and goes on to contend that the question papers for the preliminary examinations for the post of Under Secretary and Dy. Superintendent of Police had only ‘minor typing errors’.
It is a different matter mistakes are mistakes and their being minor or major depends on who is evaluating it. One such ‘minor’ mistake for example is question number 134 in Paper-I of the morning session which asks “The number of chromosomes in human cell” and the options given for the correct answer are 32, 42, 23, 206. Now either the question or the answers given are incorrect since a human cell is made up of 23 pairs of chromosomes amounting to a total of 46 [which does not figure in the options provided].
While there are, as SPSC admits, some minor typing errors, the question papers also had errors that cannot be attributed to typing mistakes alone and are clearly results of carelessness.
The Chairman informed that the Commission had requisitioned the services of twelve senior level officers (Deputy Secretaries) to assist the Commission as Coordinating Centre Supervisors and the SPSC also designated and appointed senior officers as State observers for overseeing the conduct of examination in a fair and transparent manner, all of whom who did not have any information on what the question papers carried before opening the same at the examination centre.
“Since no one was allowed to see the question papers before the examination, the minor mistakes in the question papers did not come to light. The minor typing errors in question papers came to the notice of the Commission only after the commencement of the examination. There were a few minor clarifications and corrections in the papers which were intimated to the Centre Supervisors. The Centre Supervisors in turn informed all the candidates about these corrections through Invigilators,” informs Mr Arrawatia.
In this regard he added that as soon as the question papers were opened and distributed, the mistakes were found and the same had been disseminated by the concerned invigilator to the candidates.
The SPSC Chairman while maintaining that the examinations were conducted as per the rules and guidelines of the Commission also explained that correction fluid was not allowed in the examination, something that had already been informed to the candidates before the examinations. However, he added that some invigilators let candidates use correction fluid and whiteners only on prominent mistakes like if they had filled in their roll numbers wrong.
On the other hand, many students said that they were allowed, and some even advised, to use correction fluid to correct answers of the questions with ‘minor mistakes’. It may be mentioned here that any answer corrected by the use of correction fluid on the OMR sheet will be read as invalid by the computer system. Unfortunately, some students have admitted to using correction fluid to correct their answers. Ideally, students should have been provided with fresh answer sheets for the corrections and this was done in some of the centres since the error was of the SPSC and not the candidates.
Meanwhile, an official press release details that out of 5,532 candidates who had enrolled for the examinations to fill 25 posts of Under Secretaries and two of Deputy Superintendents of Police, 5,433 admit cards were issued. Of these, 3,645 candidates sat for the morning session and 3,611 returned for the afternoon session.
As for the logistics, the prelims were conducted in 12 centres and engaged nearly 350 examination functionaries.
The press release issued by the SPSC today, further adds: “The Commission also welcomed the grievances/ doubts arising in the question papers in a written form duly justifying the nature of errors/ mistake in the question papers from the candidates. Some of the candidates have already submitted their grievances which are being examined by the Commission to the extent of genuineness.”
