UPPSC Exam Date Controversy: PCS Exam Date Change Sparks Protests, Students Clash with Police

Thousands of students gathered outside the office of Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) to protest its decision to conduct PCS 2024 preliminary exam and recruitment exams of RO/ARO separately on different days. The students are demanding that both exams be conducted on the same day, in one session to overcome what they feel as unfair practices, particularly the application of normalization, which they believe would be at their disadvantage.

UPPSC Exam Date Controversy, Students Protests

The controversy begins with an announcement by the UPPSC about the dates of the two exams--one scheduled for December 7 and 8 for PCS and December 22 and 23 for RO/ARO. The students are worried because the exams were to be held on different days and in different sessions. They feel that that is a time when normalization, which adjusts the scores relative to the difficulty of the paper, would come into play-an unjust system since on different days and with different sets of questions, it would be impossible to know which paper was easier or harder. 

Protest further intensified when the students, tired of the UPPSC's decision not to reconsider, were allowed to breach barricades erected by police and clashed with security forces. The students from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh are protesting demanding the exams be conducted at the same time in a single session as earlier years. The students argue that this is the only way to ensure fairness and prevent the application of normalization, which they believe would distort the results.

This rally has been organized after the RO/ARO recruitment examination, held on 17 February 2024 was canceled due to leakage of a paper. Cancellation had led to an outburst among the students protesting against the credibility of the exam. The worrying student is thinking that this could happen again because of a multi-day examination format. Next, they are apprehensive that more than 16 lakh candidates would be given a raw deal as normalization is implemented. Protesting has only grown stronger. Here, outside the UPPSC office, students are sitting and demanding that something be done immediately.

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They have already given a statement that they will continue demonstrating until such time the UPPSC goes back and conducts the exams on the same day in one sitting. The outcome of this protest may mean much to the future of competitive exams conducted in Uttar Pradesh.