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By 8am on Sunday, February 8, more than 600 students gathered outside the DG Vaishnav College in Chennai, ready to write the Tamil Nadu State Public Service Mains (Group II and II-A) examinations that were set to start at 9.30am.
Most students checked the sheets posted outside the college for their role numbers and couldn’t find themselves on the list. While around 200 students managed to go inside, the rest were kept out, saying that they had come to the wrong centre.
Bewildered students checked their admit cards again to find DG Vaishnava printed on their admit cards against the exam centre.
Confused students waiting outside started a protest, blocking the EVR Periyar Salai, demanding answers. People, including the Controller of Education A Shanmugasundaram, arrived on the scene and talked to students. Although initially it was thought that exams would be cancelled in only certain centres in the city, ultimately the administration bowed to pressure. Around 11, the controller of examinations sent out a circular cancelling the entire exam and postponing it for a later date.
This was met with disbelief by more than 9000 students across Tamil Nadu who had already put pen to paper.
The administration excused itself, citing “technical fault”. Originally seven examination centres had been allotted across Chennai. Out of them, three centres, namely, the Nandanam Arts and Science College, DG Vaishnava and Presidency College, were at the centre of the confusion. Admit cards were issued to all the students chartered for these three centres, with DG Vaishnava as the exam centre.
“The preparation was very intense because of the high volume of candidates. For the Group 2 Prelims, approximately 4 to 5 lakh people took the exam. Only about 10,000 were selected for the Mains. The Mains were scheduled just 30 to 40 days after the results were announced, so preparation is really a year-long process. The daily hours vary; some people have been trying for 10 years due to previous unsuccessful attempts,” says Ananthakumar of Chennai, an aspirant who was supposed to write the exams yesterday.
This year marks his second attempt to write the exam and the first time he has qualified for the mains test. “I am a working junior lawyer. In preparation for the exam, I have put my job on hold to prepare. I used to prepare for almost 14-15 hours every day. Now since they haven’t announced when the exam will happen, I have to keep preparation up at the same pace and put my job on hold for that much longer. I am a junior advocate so my duties can be delegated to others; other people don’t have that luxury,” he says
Divya, a teacher at the Kamaraj Institute, says she was one of the aspirants who had managed to get into the DG Vaishnava exam hall and that she had started filling in personal details on the OMR sheet. “The OMR was given at 9.30 am, and it was taken away at 9.40 am,” she says.
“I study for about 4 to 5 hours a day. My primary goal is Group 1, but I am also appearing for Group II. Now, the uncertainty around Group 2 is making it difficult to focus on my Group 1 preparation,” she says. Divya is also a tutor at a private coaching institute that coaches aspirants for PSC and must conduct her preparation in addition to her duties at the institute.
“The students said they felt well-prepared because they had been given plenty of time to study. But the way things unfolded yesterday was devastating. Many of my own students were taking the exam for the first time, and the trust they placed in the TNPSC has been completely shaken. We try to tell students to give equal prestige to the TNPSC as they do to the UPSC, and many students do want to serve their home state. But now students have lost hope of their attempts going well,” says Divya.
Across the state many institutes offer students coaching, but it does not come cheap. Coaching can cost upwards of Rs 40,000.
Kamaraj IAS Academy, the institute in Chennai that Divya teaches at, has around 300 students yearly for coaching for the TNPSC, of which close to 50 people had qualified to write the exam. Shankar IAS Academy, another coaching centre, told TNM that they had 170 offline seats and more than 60 online seats. An eight-month programme here costs students Rs 45,000.
Students point out that while the Tamil Nadu state government subsidises UPSC preparation and coaching expenses with schemes such as the Naan Mudhalvan scheme, the cost of preparing for the state PSC falls squarely on the aspirants and their families. Hence, those who aspire to write the exam often have to juggle with financial insecurity as well.
Bharath was among those who had to return dejected from DG Vaishnav. “I have sacrificed everything for this exam. I couldn’t attend any social events or go out with friends or for a movie. Even a few hours of sleep would cause me to panic about pending portions,” he says.
Bharath is a native of Villupuram district, and his family is engaged in wage labour. He has moved to Chennai for the sake of education. “I enrolled in a coaching centre four years ago at Rs 18,000. I worked in the same institute for six months and then did a private job at the corporate office of a jeweller. I did not tell my family about this because they wouldn’t understand what happened.” Bharat says he quit his job ahead of the exams and that he had cleared group 4 exams and was going to join under the same.
Saravanan, who quit his private job and chose the government job for job security, demanded that the testing agency be responsible for conducting the exams since it involves the lives of lakhs of students.
“The time frame in notification, prelims, mains, correction, counselling, and job recruitment should be reduced. It took one and a half or two years to complete the main exam; if we fail at it, we have to begin with prelims again,” he added.
In the wake of the incident, opposition parties, including All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK), and alliance partners such as the Communist Party of India [CPI(M)] come down heavily on the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government on this issue.“Even if the exam is conducted again, aspirants are forced to reinvest their time and energy. This not only wastes their precious years but also causes severe mental distress. For whom, this publicity-driven DMK government functioning if not for the youth who dreamt of a better future?” TVK founder-president Vijay said in his social media post.
Following widespread condemnation, the administration transferred the TNPSC Controller of Examinations, Shanmuga Sundaram, appointing Venkata Priya IAS in his place.
TNM attempted to contact TNPSC Chairman SK Prabakar, IAS, but could not get a comment. This story will be updated if we receive a response.
The Tamil Nadu government has now notified that the exams will happen on March 15 and added the hall tickets of the aspirants will be uploaded this month.