The All India Agricultural Students’ Association has raised questions about the conduct of examinations by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for selecting Senior Research Fellows and Junior Research Fellows. According to the association, students from South India, especially Kerala, were allotted centres outside the State and in far flung areas for the examinations held on June 22 and 23. There were also allegations of copying in several centres.
“So far, Kerala had three examination centres, in Thiruvananthapuram, Mannuthy and Kozhikode. From this year, the exams were held online. There were no centres in Kerala. Students from Kerala were allotted centres in places like Chikmagalur. Even those who got centres in Bengaluru said that these were located in places away from the city centre,” said Sanoop Skariah Varghese, State president of the association.
Another issue the association raised was lack of security checks at the exam hall, unlike previous years. Students taking the exam in the same stream were allotted adjacent seats. Owing to lack of computers, students had to wait until the first batch of students finished the test in some centres. The online examination interface had also several issues, with answers getting submitted before time in some cases. There were also cases of mass copying in centres in North India, alleges the association.
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“The national president of the association met the Director General of ICAR on Monday to raise these issues. But, the DG was not ready to take these issues seriously or order a re-test. A large number of students have also sent complaints directly to the ICAR and the association. The ICAR student support cell is not even picking up calls. This will be a huge setback to students from South India, as most of the top ranks are regularly won by students from the region,” said Mr.Varghese.