The Staff Selection Commission will not cancel the recent Selection Post Phase 13 exam, but may hold a retest for affected candidates who were denied a “fair chance”, Chairman S Gopalakrishnan said on Monday amid protests over mismanagement during the test.
The body has also written to exam vendor Eduquity Career Technologies, asking the firm to address all issues reported during the July 24-August 1 test window.
“We are analysing the data. If we find even one candidate who has been wronged, we will conduct the exam again for them,” the Chairman said.
The SSC is a statutory body that conducts recruitment exams for various posts in ministries, departments, and other government organisations.
The Phase 13 exam, conducted between July 24 and August 1 across 194 centres in 142 cities, was plagued by abrupt cancellations, software crashes, biometric verification failures, and erroneous centre allotments. During the test window, around 5 lakh candidates appeared for the examination.
These disruptions triggered a wave of protests across Delhi last week, bringing thousands of aspirants to the streets and also resulting in a strong backlash on social media.
Speaking to ANI, the Chairman admitted to mismanagement, including technical glitches and far-off centres being assigned to candidates. He assured that all issues would be resolved in the coming months. “We will correct and plan in the coming months,” he added.
To address the immediate concern of candidates, additional tests were held on August 2 in three shifts.
Two centres, one in Delhi (Pawan Ganga) and another in Uttar Pradesh (Educasa), saw complete cancellations, affecting around 2,500 students.
On August 2, about 16,600 candidates were scheduled for the retest, but only 8,048 turned up, marking a 60 per cent attendance rate.
The Chairman said the SSC would conduct another re-test for affected candidates, if necessary.
Chairman Gopalakrishnan admitted to “teething problems” with the new vendor and said penalties would be imposed for lapses such as system hangs and mouse malfunctions.
However, he rejected calls by candidates and educators to remove the vendor.
“Based on one test, I cannot remove them. How will I conduct examinations in the coming weeks? I will have to float a new tender, and it will take until December for a company to be finalised. Till then, what will I do?” he asked.
“We have seen an improvement in the company’s functioning over one week. There were issues on the first few days, and then they resolved them,” he added.
Responding to concerns over the use of Artificial Intelligence in question selection, the SSC clarified that only a rudimentary AI system is used to avoid repetition, with each question tagged with metadata.
Students alleged that the use of AI led to the repetition of questions.
The SSC said it relies on logs, CCTV footage, and electronic data analysis to ensure the integrity of exams, with network systems opened to the commission and monitored with the help of the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC).
The SSC is hopeful that the upcoming examinations will be smooth and without disruptions.
“In this exam, we have seen what issues can arise. The upcoming exams on August 6-8 will be much less disruptive. There will be 3.5 lakh candidates in the upcoming exams,” he said.
