PSTET exam: Candidates given blank, misprinted test papers

Ludhiana: Candidates who appeared in Punjab State Teacher Eligibility Test (PSTET) on Sunday reported many blunders in the question papers, including misprinting of questions.
PSTET is a crucial exam for aspiring teachers, conducted by State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT). Candidates that took the test on Sunday said many pages in a lot of question papers were not properly printed, and the examination centres later also had to provide photocopies of correct papers to the aspirants as not enough copies were available at the centres.
Reportedly, the education department had later even asked the invigilators to collect back the question papers from the candidates, which many aspirants believed was done to save face.
Besides in yet another major blunder on part of the testing agency, answers had inadvertently been provided to the candidates who appeared for the SST exam in the evening shift. The Set-B question paper of the exam, that was in a multiple choice question (MCQ) format, had all the correct options marked in bold.
At 21 centres in the district, 3,843 candidates appeared in Paper 1 — meant for those aspiring to teach classes I to V — and 6,231 appeared in Paper 2 — for those aspiring to teach classes VI to VIII.
TOI found out that question papers at examination centres at Government School, Punjab Agricultural University and GSSS (Boys), Jawahar Nagar had several blank pages, which troubled the candidates. Later, the centres had made copies of these question papers which were then given to the candidates.
Manjeet who took the test at Vishwakarma Senior Secondary School, said a candidate who appeared in her class received a paper with several blank pages. While she was later given another paper, she wasn’t allowed to take the original paper with her.
Another student who appeared at GSSS PAU, said she also faced similar issues so she was given the paper of an absentee. The 2.5-hour-long exam consisted of 150 MCQs of 1 mark each, and this confusion wasted several minutes of the aspirants.
When contacted, district education officer (secondary) Harjit Singh said the exam was conducted by Guru Nanak Dev University, and it was responsible for the exam. However he confirmed that the invigilators sent by the education department had been instructed to collect the question papers after the exam.