The preliminary exams for filling posts of 350 Gazetted Probationary officers, held on August 27 by the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC), will be conducted again in the next two months. There had been an outrage over the poor translation of questions from English to Kannada, leading to confusion among Kannada-medium students, in the examination.
“In the light of reports of inappropriate Kannada translation of questions in the KPSC Gazetted Probationers’ examination, I have directed KPSC to re-conduct the examination within 2 months to ensure fairness to all candidates,” Chief Minister Siddaramaiah posted on social media platform X.
He further stated: “Those responsible for these lapses have been relieved of their duties. The upcoming examination will be conducted with the utmost responsibility and accountability following all due diligence. We remain committed to upholding the integrity of our recruitment processes”.
There had been an outrage against the KPSC for poor and erroneous translation of questions from English to Kannada, and various errors in the question paper of the recently held preliminary examination. Many writers and candidates alleged that the Commission had used Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools or Google Translate to translate from English to Kannada.
Candidates had alleged that many questions were beyond comprehension.
Of the 1.3 lakh students, who took the examination, over one lakh students came from Kannada-medium education and from rural backgrounds. Hence, the erroneous translations created a stir.
Kannada Development Authority (KDA) took note of the erroneous translation and served a notice to KPSC. Responding to the notice, KPSC denied using any technology for the translation and informed that the translation was done by translators assigned by the Translation Department at the Commission.
KDA Chairman Purushottam Bilimale, Kannada Sahitya Akademi Chairman L. N. Mukundaraj were among those who had come down heavily on the errors in the translation in the question paper.
The issue was trending on social media with users creating hashtags like #KPSC_Mosa #KASReExam. Karnataka
Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Priyank Kharge had recently posted on social media that he had informed the Chief Minister of the concerns of students, and a decision would be announced soon.
It can be recalled that the preliminary exam held on August 27 was controversial even before it was held. Even as a group of students called for a postponement, the State Government had gone ahead and held the exam as per schedule.
