Police in Patna resorted to baton charge on Friday afternoon to disperse civil service candidates who were protesting over the issue of “normality” in the Bihar Public Service Commission preliminary examination.
Popular teachers and educators of Patna Coaching Centre, Khan Sir and Guru Rehman also joined the protestors and demanded Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) Chairman RB Parmar to declare in a clear notice that there will be no normalization in the BPSC preliminary examination. Held on December 13.
Police briefly detained some of the protesters and two teachers urged the aspirants to remain peaceful in their protest.
Normalization is the process of addressing possible differences in the difficulty of different papers given in different shifts of the same examination. The Commission has considered conducting the examination in two shifts and if the candidates get very low marks in one shift as compared to the other shift, the marks of those who get ‘difficult’ papers can be increased and normalized.
The agitating BPSC candidates have opposed it, and the BPSC itself remains in limbo over whether to implement normalization.
BPSC Secretary Satyaprakash Sharma said that the commission has not announced normalization and the exam will be held in one shift. However, the candidates of BPSC have requested a written notice from the Chairman of the Commission in this regard.
Khan sir told reporters, “It is not maths that can fetch the same marks. The exam is of general studies, where questions cannot be quantified and adopting normalization would be absurd. It could deprive many deserving students from cracking prelims.”
Guru Rahman said, “We are firmly with the students and will continue the agitation until the commission tells us in writing that there will be no normalization.”
BPSC first adopted normalization in the 64th Combined (Preliminary) Competitive Examination held in 2018. After several candidates protested against it and pointed out errors in the calculation of marks, the Patna High Court intervened, directing the commission to review the process. The BPSC then re-evaluated the marks and released revised results, which led to a change in the merit category of some candidates.