Eligible candidates left out

Recently,the Chandigarh Administration had dismissed a few Junior Basic Training (JBT) teachers,who were ‘erroneously’ selected and given salaries for three months.

Now,the scrutiny of marks of candidates who applied in Fine Arts has revealed that marks of 59 candidates were wrongly calculated.

The list (see box) reveals that ‘qualification marks’ of these candidates were not added in the final total. As a result,these 59 candidates were not called for the interviews. Had the mistakes not taken place,the final list would have been different.

For instance,a candidate with roll number 200120001 scored 15.24 marks for his qualification,16.10 marks in the objective and 1.25 marks in the descriptive tests. The total comes to 35.87 marks but the candidate was awarded 17.35 marks.

In many cases,candidates with above 30 marks have been given 15 marks in the final list prepared by the Administration.

In one case,a candidate with roll number 200120042 was not awarded any mark for qualification — the candidate has a Bachelor in Fine Arts degree with 63.42 per cent marks. Other candidates with the same degree and lesser percentage have been given 15 marks for qualification.

The errors are evident in case of more than 40 per cent candidates,who applied in Fine Arts subject. Around 190 candidates took the exam in the category.

Officials ‘stunned’

Hearing about the error,Education department’s officials were ‘stunned’. Initially,Director Public Instructions (Schools) Sunil Bhatia,said,“Since you have brought this to my notice,I shall get it examined.”

Later in the day,Bhatia confirmed the errors: “Yes. After you pointed it out,we conducted a random check and found that there were mistakes in the total.”

“I have asked the DOEACC authorities to check this and revert. They have gone to their office and shall conduct a recheck. The final position will be clear tomorrow,” Bhatia added.

With this error,questions are being raised over the sanctity and transparency adopted by the Chandigarh Administration in recruiting 536 teachers for over a 100 city schools.

The recruitment process,which was mired in a scam last year,had started more than three years ago.