Prayagraj: On the initiative of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) on Thursday announced that the PCS (preliminary) examination 2024 will be held on a single day. The commission also postponed the Review Officer and Assistant Review Officer exams and constituted a committee to ensure that the exam is held in a transparent and fair manner.
The fresh dates for PCS (prelims), which was scheduled on Dec 7 and 8, will be announced soon.
The decision brought relief to thousands of aspirants who had been protesting outside the UPPSC headquarters in Prayagraj for the past three days demanding the exams be conducted on a single day instead of two days and roll back the ‘normalization' method of evaluation.
Taking cognisance of these demands, CM Yogi Adityanath had directed the commission on Thursday to address candidates' demands.
UPPSC issued a notice on Thursday evening, signed by undersecretary Omkar Nath Singh, announcing that PCS (prelime) 2024 would be conducted on a single day.
UPPSC secretary Ashok Kumar said in view of paper leaks in many parts of the country in the recent months, UP govt had decided to safeguard the sanctity and transparency of the competitive examinations. For this reason, UPPSC had announced to conduct the PCS and RO/ARO examinations in two shifts in Dec this year. However, this decision has been revoked after the CM took cognizance of the students' demands.
He said the committee for RO/ARO exams will examine all aspects and submit its report soon, so that the sanctity and credibility of the examination is safeguarded.
PCS (prelims) was scheduled in 41 districts of the state on Dec 7 and 8 in two sessions (9.30am to 11.30am and 2.30pm to 4.30 pm).
A govt order issued in June this year had elaborated the criteria for selecting the centres for conducting the UPPSC exams. It was following this GO that the commission fell short of institutions that could be made exam centres.
For PCS pre, there are more than 5.7 lakh candidates and 1,758 examination centres were required. UPPSC got approval only for 978 centres which could accommodate only 4,35,074 candidates. Therefore, it was decided to hold the exams for two days. Moreover, since the exam will now be held in a single day, the ‘normalisation' method would no longer be needed.
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Norms relaxed for exam centres
UP govt has relaxed the provision in its June GO for selecting exam centres. Govt has clarified that the relaxation is only for PCS (prelims) exam and the commission must ensure that the schools or institutions selected as exam centres are situated on the main road.
‘Normalisation' formula
The ‘normalisation' formula is applicable only in cases of examinations conducted over multiple days. When the same exam is conducted on different days, the question papers are also different. In such a scenario, there is a probability that one question paper may be more difficult than the other. To eliminate this difference, the system of normalisation is implemented. In this, marks are evaluated using a computerised formula, based on the relative performance in each shift.