Odia paper error: OSSC to conduct exam afresh
BHUBANESWAR: A day after the preliminary examination for recruitment of accountants in the Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) department was marred by serious script errors, the Odisha Staff Selection Commission (OSSC) on Monday cancelled the test and announced to conduct it afresh.
It, however, was silent on action to be taken against those responsible for the fiasco that embarrassed the state government. Attributing the fiasco to a printing mistake, OSSC said the fresh date for the examination will be announced shortly.
“Because of substantial errors in the printing of the Odia version of the questions in the preliminary examination for accountants under the H&UD department, the Odisha Staff Selection Commission has decided to cancel the preliminary examination, both English and Odia versions, held on April 23. The commission regrets the inconvenience caused to applicants,” said the notification.
The OSSC on Sunday had conducted the preliminary examination across the state. Apart from the regular English question paper, the other questions were set in Odia language. Aspirants who wrote the examination in Odia alleged the question paper was replete with errors. The questions in Odia script were set in a manner that made it tough for the candidates to comprehend leading to a waste of their time.
The two-hour-long examination conducted in OMR mode was for 150 marks and there was a negative marking of 0.25 marks for every wrong answer. The 150 questions were divided into sections on Arithmetics, Logical Reasoning, Current Events and Computer/Internet Awareness, each section having 25 to 35 questions.
Several candidates took to Twitter to apprise OSSC chairman Abhay of the issue and demanded re-examination. “The question paper was set in a way that none could understand it. It was time consuming and complicated for Odia medium aspirants,” said an aspirant Krushna Mohanta.
While the font broke in almost all the questions, there was no gap between words in many. While OSSC officials refused to comment on what led to the mistake and who is to be blamed for it, language experts questioned if the test paper was proofread before being finalised and sent to the press.