Many Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission’s (TNPSC) aspirants are caught between two stools as the Village Administrative Officer (VAO) examination and the English paper-II of the second-year Diploma in Teacher Education (DTEd), conducted by the Directorate of Government Examinations, fall on the same day — June 14, 2014.
The VAO examination, conducted by TNPSC is being held to fill 2,342 vacant VAO posts across the State. The exam date clashes with an exam of DTEd and at least 8,000 second-year students of the diploma course across the various government and private institutes in the State will be forced to make a cho-ice of attending either paper. “Since both exams are being conducted on the same day, we have to make a choice,” said Vinoth, a student from Mayiladuthurai Town.
The students have urged the examination authorities to consider changing the date of either of the exams.
DTEd students, upon the successful completion of the course, may take the Teacher Eligibility Test paper I. The students are, however, in a dilemma since there is no provision for a supplementary examination for the DTEd papers. If a student is absent or fails in a paper, he would have to wait for an entire year before taking up the exam to complete the two-year diploma course.
“Since we do not have the option of a supplementary examination for DTEd papers, many of us will have to leave the TNPSC examination as it’s not good to wait a full year to complete the diploma course. If the date of either examination is changed it will benefit the second-year diploma students,” Vinoth added.
According to a private study centre in Mayiladuthurai Town, the number of students appearing for TNPSC examination seems to have surged in recent days. Speaking to Express, Rajaraman, a trainer said, “About 600 to 800 students from Mayiladuthurai town alone have enrolled for the Village Administration Officer examinations to be held on June 14.” As competition is expected to be stiff across the state for this year’s exam, students will have to score a cut-off of 270 on 300 to emerge successful.”
Meanwhile, TNPSC is expected to release the admit cards for the June 14 exam on their official website soon. Candidates who will be appearing for exam will be able to download the admit cards from the website www.tnpsc.gov.in