Recently, the Karnataka Public Service Commission conducted the Gazetted Probationers’ exam to recruit 350 probationary officers for gazetted positions in Karnataka. Almost 130,000 candidates sat for the exam out of which about 100,000 candidates were from Kannada medium backgrounds. The exam was set in both Kannada and English. The candidates were in for a rude shock when many of the Kannada questions were found to be riddled with translation mistakes. Many questions were found to make no sense in Kannada. The use of AI tools or Google translate for translation is being thought to be the culprit. This undue reliance on technology for such a serious examination indicates serious lapses on the side of the government.
Following this lapse, the examinees demanded a re-exam while the state Congress government was left red-faced. Both Kannada Development Authority Chairman Purushottam Bilimale and Kannada Sahitya Akademi Chairman L. N. Mukundaraj were vocal in their criticism of the translation errors found in the question paper. The government has agreed to initiate the re-exam as of now within a period of two months. According to the government, the officials responsible were relieved from duty. Student organisations, lecturers, and coaching centres discovered errors in more than 50 questions spread across Paper 1 and Paper 2. This incident reveals the lax attitude of the government when it comes to serious examinations as well as the disproportionate nature of vacancies and applicants. The severe dip in dignified employment is the principal reason for this.
Around the same time, the Karnataka Examination Authority published a notification asking aspiring Bachelor of Dental Surgery students to deposit an amount of one lakh as caution money to apply at their colleges of choice. This amount was imposed on all students irrespective of their social or economic marginalisation. For students coming from underprivileged backgrounds, paying such a huge amount without any respite is equivalent to them having to refrain from pursuing higher education irrespective of the kind of ranks they have secured in entrance examinations. Many students expressed their discontent at this undue harassment. This is nothing but a ploy to make education inaccessible for the general masses.
