Out-of-syllabus questions mar OSSC teacher recruitment exam, commission announces fresh test in Dec

In yet another slip, the Odisha Staff Selection Commission (OSSC) has cancelled the Main Written Examination of Hindi and Sanskrit held on September 22 and 23 due to out-of-syllabus questions.

Admitting the error, the OSSC in a statement said, “The commission has examined the objections/representations in consultation with academic experts and has come to the conclusion that a significant number of questions were from outside the syllabus published.”

“The commission has therefore decided to cancel the main examination of Hindi Teacher held on 22.09.2023 and Sanskrit Teacher held on 23.09.2023. Examination will be held afresh in December, 2023. Inconvenience to candidates is sincerely regretted,” it stated.

Speaking about fiasco, academician Satyakam Mishra said, “This is irresponsible on the part of OSSC. The authorities of the OSSC should have been more responsible while preparing question papers and conducting exams. The Commission should introspect and make the life easier for the examinees.”

While no exact date has been issued by the OSSC for the fresh exams, the Commission has said that it can be conducted in December this year.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Commission received a large number of representations from candidates complaining a huge number of questions being out of syllabus. They demanded the examination should be cancelled and re-examination should be held.

While many candidates used the online mechanism of "objection to tentative answer" provided by OSSC to make the same point along with documentation a lot other examinees have resorted to dharna in front of the OSSC office to press their point.

Notably, result of main examination for TGT Arts, TGT Science PCM, TGT Science CBZ, Telugu Teacher and Physical Education Teacher was published on Friday and 5842 candidates have been shortlisted for Certification Verification (TGT Arts- 2663, TGT PCM-1325, TGT CBZ- 1224, Physical Education Teacher-622, Telugu Teacher-08).

Earlier, the OSSC was embroiled in controversy after it cancelled the Main Written Examination for JE (Civil) conducted on July 16, 2023, after the question paper of the same exam was leaked.