CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC), the government recruitment agency, in its recent syllabus change for Group 2 examination has removed General Tamil and General English sections from preliminary exams and combined parts of it with the main exam.
This has created much furore in the State and drew critical political reactions that alleged that those who do not know Tamil will be able to become Group 2 officers in Tamil Nadu. However, commission officials have clarified that in the new syllabus, knowing Tamil is mandatory for clearing the upcoming exam and added that there has been a large public misunderstanding on the issue.
In its preliminary examination of TNPSC Combined Civil Services Examination 2, which is also known as Group 2 exams, the commission has decided to retain only General Studies and Aptitude and Mental Ability Test papers. However, the main paper on the other hand, has internal components on Tamil, including translation, precis writing, comprehension, essay writing and hints development.
“Earlier, students could choose to either write the General English or General Tamil paper in the preliminary exam. We realised that this led to a deficiency and figured that we needed to recruit people who could use Tamil at least functionally,” said a senior IAS officer from the commission.
“A majority of the questions in the past were multiple-choice questions. Now, the main exam also includes subjective questions and essay answers through which we can understand a candidate better,” the official explained.