On the 26th of January, when the nation was observing Republic Day, a photograph of a train ablaze became a web sensation via social media. In many areas of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, a huge number of students emerged to protest. It is said that a portion of these students got fierce, because of which a train was set ablaze, and stones were pelted at another train.

 THE EXAM : REASONS FOR THE PROTEST

Railroad Recruitment Board's Non-Technical Popular Category exam. It is a exam for filling different jobs in the Indian Railways. For instance, the beginning compensation of a level 2 occupation is around ₹19,000, and the base capability is completing the 12th grade.

And the jobs of level, for example, station master, have a starting salary of ₹35,000 and the minimum qualification is graduation. This exam is conducted in multiple stages.

 TIMELINE 

For the RRB NTPC exam, the notice was given in February yet the exam was delayed as a result of Covid, and the exam was at last held from 28th December 2020 to 31st July 2021. The exam occurred various stages. The exam was conducted for 35,000 vacancies altogether and 14 million competitors showed up for the exam!

 Countless students were competing with one another for these couple of occupations. After around 5 or a half years of directing the exam, the outcome was declared on the 15^th of January. This was the result of CBT 1.

Based on this, 7,00,000 candidates were shortlisted to show up for the CBT 2 exam. RRB had guaranteed that for the 35,000 openings here, the number of competitors chosen for CBT would be 20x the vacancy.

THE PROBLEM AND REASONING

The issue here is that when the outcome was declared, it was observed that a few students were counted at least a time or two on the list of shortlisted contenders for various levels. In this way, 7,00,000 students didn't qualify to show up for the CBT 2 exam. Rather, somewhere near, 380,000 students qualified, wherein the names of a few students were counted twice or thrice for the various levels for the level 2, level 3, level 6 positions. So, in reality, the number of candidates wasn't timing the number of vacancies.

The subsequent issue, as per the students, is that the 12th pass students and the graduate students needed to sit for a similar exam. However, for the selection, the cut-offs for both groups were different. The cut-offs for the graduates were lower and more accessible, and the cut-offs for the 12th pass candidates were more difficult.

 The thinking behind this given by the government is that of the 35,000 openings, the highest qualification requirement is for a graduate. So for graduate students, each of the 35,000 posts is accessible. But for 12th the pass students, just 12,000 of the vacancies are for them.

 These are the number of jobs one can get with a 12th pass qualification. What happened because of this was the graduate students got an unfair advantage.                                                                                 Not only they were competing for jobs among themselves, but the 12th pass students needed to compete with graduate students for the positions for 12th pass applicants.

The government reacted to this point by saying that they did so for CBT 1, so that time and funds of the government are spent economically and it would conduct differently the CBT 2 exams at different levels.

THE IGNORANCE

These were the issues that the NTPC students faced because of which they were protesting. However, before fighting out on the streets, the students attempted to put across their complaints across Twitter as well. Yet, the government paid no regard for it. Even though there were a huge number of tweets for this, and it was moving on #1

THE BLUNDERS

RRB posted the notice for Group D Level 1 exam in March 2019. This exam was also delayed and postponed because of Covid. But now suddenly, they published a new notification that rather than one exam, they would now conduct 2 exams. This was said in 2019 they published the new notification just one month before the examination.

They said that the exam would now be held in February in 2 stages. Students aren't given a lot of chance to get ready, they didn't inform them on time, and they also changed the procedure for the normalization of marks. The inconsistencies in the exams might appear to be irrelevant, yet for some students, this would influence their lives.

Students need to pay an application expense of ₹.500. As showed by the number of students (14 million) who filled the form, the government produced an income of 7,00,00,000! (7 crores). They pay this money to show up for the exam, and afterward, the exam is first delayed consistently and when they are led, there is a postponement in distributing the outcomes and when the outcomes get announced, the outcomes are computed unfairly, that the vacancies aren't filled as expected.

There are still many angles of this case which would be covered at length in the next blog, until then stay safe. If you liked this blog then like, comment and share! And don't forget to follow Wissen Cafe.