By Express News Service SC chairman MK Sakeer has termed the allegations of collusion between coaching centres allegedly run by government officials and PSC staff as attempts to discredit a reputed Constitutional body. In an interview with TNIE Chief Reporter Sovi Vidyadharan, Sakeer spelt out the various measures being taken to make the examination system foolproof. He said it has been decided to reintroduce descriptive exam for higher posts. Excerpts: Q: How do you respond to the charge that some coaching centres allegedly run by government officers have influence in certain sections of PSC? A: Had this allegation been true, the children of PSC staff would be occupying all government posts. All sections of the PSC, especially the office of the Controller of Examination, are immune to external influence. These charges are baseless. Q: What are the reforms that PSC is planning to implement to make exam foolproof? A: We have decided to introduce descriptive examination for higher posts where the number of candidates are up to 5,000. Especially for teaching posts at the level of assistant professor and above, an OMR-based examination would be inadequate to truly assess the candidate in a subjective manner. Attempts will also be made to publish results at the earliest. Q. What are security measures taken by PSC? A: In a bid prevent candidates from securing adjacent seats, the alpha code of question paper is revealed to only when he or she reaches the exam hall. Even if the candidates manage to sit nearby, questions will not be in the same order thereby reducing chances of malpractice. Also, the time frame to download the hall ticket has been brought close to the date of exam so that candidates do not get to know the centre or the seating position in advance. Q: Why has the recommendation to install CCTV cameras in all exam halls not materialised yet? A: There is an ongoing debate on the feasibility of installing 30,000 CCTV cameras in exam centres. Other issues have also come to the fore like maintenance of cameras and their control units, and which agency should monitor them. The government has to take the final call. Q. What about the proposal to conduct online examinations? A: We did discuss with engineering colleges on the feasibility of using their computer labs for online PSC exams. Still, it would serve only up to 10,000 candidates. Also, colleges will not be able to provide the labs throughout the year. A possible solution would be to set up test centres in each district by the local bodies that can be used for online PSC examination. If the government takes a call on this proposal, over 70 per cent of exams can be made online. Q. There are complaints that many questions were taken from guides brought out by coaching centres? A: Technical questions will be similar whether prepared by a PSC question setter or by the author of a guide. These guides may have thousands of questions and some of them may figure in the PSC examination. This is purely coincidental.

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