Prayagraj: With UP Public Service Commission deciding to hold two important exams—PCS (Pre)-2024 and RO/ARO (Pre)-2023—on two different days, highly placed sources informed TOI that a lot of consideration and homework was done before making the decision. The Commission informed TOI that in order to conduct the examination in one day for the total registered candidates of 5,76,154 in PCS (Pre)-2024, 1,758 examination centres (as per the standard) were required. However, consent was received for 978 examination centres.
In these centres, only 4,35,074 candidates could be accommodated. Likewise, for the total registered candidates in the Review Officer/Assistant Review Officer, etc. (Pre) Examination-2023, there are 10,76,004 registered candidates.
Thus, it is not possible to conduct the examination in one day as per the standard in relation to the agreed examination centres. The Commission also considered the past records of the number of candidates registering and those who appear in the exam. Since less than 70% of candidates appear in the exam (given the past records), the Commission also thought of opting a process to arrange exam centres based on those who appear in the exam.
However, the percentage of downloading the admit card was quite high (nearly 90%). "Since we have to make arrangements for every registered candidate, the exam has to be conducted on two different days ," said the source. Even after expanding the examination centres upto a radius of 20 km from the collectorate/treasury of all the districts of the state, the Commission was not in a position to have an adequate number of exam centres as per the standards mentioned in the govt order.
In NEET entrance examination case, the high-level committee on examination reforms constituted by the Govt of India under the chairmanship of former head of ISRO, K. Radhakrishnan, also recommended the adoption of a multi-shift examination system in case number of candidates in an examination is very high, so that compliance with the security protocol related to examination can be ensured. Likewise, the source told TOI that the process of normalisation has been considered appropriate by the Commission, following the decision dated Jan 7, 2024, of the SC passed in Civil Appeal No.
228 of 2022, State of Uttar Pradesh and others vs. Atul Kumar Dwivedi and others, in relation to examinations conducted in more than one session..
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