Kerala PSC's Recruitment farce

This letter relates to recruitment to fill up the vacancies of Lecturers in Physics in Government Arts and Science College of Kerala by the Kerala Public Service Commission. The Commission conducted a test in June 09 and for which all the M Sc, M Phil and Ph D qualified candidates attended. The interesting side of the test is though the qualification needed for candidates is M Sc with NET/JRF all the post graduates in Physics who are not qualified in NET are permitted to write the Examination.

In the recruitment notification, PSC had declared the syllabus and that was indicated in the Hall Ticket too. However, the candidates who appeared for test were thunder stricken by seeing the pattern of the OMR question paper. Nearly half the paper contained questions from General Knowledge section. The questions from Physics portion contained some with many answers and some other with no answers. A clear ploy could not be ruled out in incorporating GK questions in the paper.

None could ever argue that Physics Lecturers need not require General Knowledge. Nevertheless it should be informed in advance when the candidates are preparing for the test. Leaking off questions papers and canceling certain questions at valuation are the usual practice of the P S C, it is alleged. All corruption in Kerala University test for recruitment of Assistant grade post three years back, is still under investigation by the HC of Kerala. Is the distortion in question paper by the P S C for Physics Lecturer post intended to protect a few privileged ones related to higher ups in the society?

I understood that many candidates have grievance in the act of PSC. The PSC, therefore, should notify the exact number of questions that are going to be valued and the exact requirement in educational qualification for the post. Are the candidates without NET eligible for the post? The PSC recruitment should be a competitive examination and not a mere circus for candidates for getting experience in similar exercises.

K A Solaman

Search PublishaLette.com dated 15 July 2009