The Hindu: Chennai: Wednesday,
November 09, 2016.
The State
Information Commission (SIC) has directed Mother Teresa University, the nodal
agency for conducting State Level Eligibility Test (SET) this year, to share
documents on how the question paper for ‘Life Sciences’ was set only in English
while the notification claimed that it would be bilingual (English and Tamil).
The issue
arises out of a petition by a candidate M. Parthiban of Dharmapuri who claimed
that to his dismay he found the ‘Life Sciences’ question paper in English
whereas the prospectus in the form of notification said it would be bilingual.
Thousands of candidates appeared for SET held in February this year, the
results of which were published last month.
When he sent
a petition under RTI Act seeking to know the reason, the Mother Teresa
University authorities replied that the norms of the University Grants
Commission were followed but gave no clarification on why there was a deviation
from the notification.
Aggrieved
over this, the candidate moved the State Information Commission, which sent
notice to the university calling for an explanation. The Public Information
Officer stated that though the notification had mentioned bilingual question
paper, a Committee of Examiners and Steering Committee, taking into account the
UGC norms, decided that the question papers for ‘Life Sciences’ and four other
subjects would be only in English. He said that this information was published
on the home page of the TNSET website, though the original notification
remained unchanged.
UGC norms
Passing
orders after hearing both sides, State Chief Information Commissioner K.
Ramanujam directed the varsity to furnish the norms of the UGC regarding the
medium of question papers. Besides sharing the minutes of the meeting of the
Examiners and Steering Committee, he asked the authorities to provide a copy of
the notice reportedly published on the website.
Exam
candidate seeks to know why question paper was in English when notification
said it would be bilingual.
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