Bangalore: While arguing for English as a medium of instruction in India, Lord Macaulay infamously said in 1835: "... A single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia." But the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) seems to have a different take on history.

The key answer to a question (No. 115) in the history paper for the preliminary examination for the posts of Gazetted Probationers suggests that Macaulay did not utter this historic blasphemy and indeed said something completely to the contrary.

Website

The key answer, available on KPSC's website, attributes the following quote to him: "None have treated them (the natives) with so much cruelty as we." In yet another instance, the key answer attributes the Kushans as of "Turkish" origin (question no. 53). A question on "revolutionary terrorists" (No. 15) gets the names and the journals they edited mixed up.

Students who appeared for the preliminary round of examination on September 10, the results of which were announced at the end of the month, point to bloomers of this kind in the list of key answers.

They said that several questions that appeared in the question paper were out of the syllabus.

This carelessness, they said, was unpardonable in the elimination round of a competitive examination where the difference of less than one mark can make or ruin a career.

Of the 69,000 candidates who took the examinations, 2,010 had qualified for the next round of examinations. Each question carries 2.5 marks.

KPSC Chairman H.N. Krishna admitted to The Hindu that they had got 34 complaints from candidates on errors in key answers to the history paper. These, if supported by convincing records, would be forwarded to the paper setter who would be the final authority on the issue.

If KPSC was at fault, they would give grace marks to students, he said. But on complaints about out-of-syllabus questions, he said the rule was that the candidate should lodge his/her complaint before leaving the examination hall and take an endorsement from the authorities.

"Only English"

Much is made of strictly implementing Kannada as the official language of administration. But strangely, a part of the application for those who have got through the preliminary round of KPSC examinations, asks students to state their order of preference in postings strictly in "English only".

This was particularly difficult, complain applicants, because the information booklet lists these departments only in Kannada.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail