TNPSC Group 2: Aspirants allege Tamil option tougher than English

CHENNAI: Candidates who appeared for the TNPSC Group 2 and Group 2A examinations on Sunday have alleged that the Tamil language question paper was significantly tougher than its English counterpart, giving those who opted for English an edge.

As many as 3,97,290 candidates appeared for the examinations. Several aspirants claimed that candidates who chose English had a better chance of scoring higher marks than those who opted for Tamil.

The Group 2 and Group 2A examinations allow candidates to choose either Tamil or English as their language option, while the General Studies section is common to all. Of the 200 questions, 100 are from the language section and the remaining 100 from General Studies.

According to the syllabus published by the TNPSC, the Tamil language section is based on the Class 10 standard. However, candidates alleged that several questions in Sunday’s examination were unusually difficult and appeared to be outside the prescribed syllabus.

Speaking to DT Next, M Palpandi, an aspirant from Madurai, said the Tamil question paper was so difficult that scoring even 70 to 75 marks in the language section would be challenging. He pointed out that the TNPSC did not have a normalisation process for marks between the Tamil and English versions, which put Tamil-medium candidates at a disadvantage. "Why should the TNPSC create such a disparity for candidates choosing Tamil?" he asked.

However, TNPSC examination trainer Iyyachamy said the overall standard of the question paper was reasonable, though there were a few errors. He agreed that the Tamil questions were comparatively tougher than those in English.

S Nataraj of a coaching institute said candidates could not expect the commission to frame questions in a particular manner. He suggested that the removal of the English language option in the Group 4 examination in 2021 had created a favourable situation for candidates opting for English in the Group 2 examination.

Several candidates who took the test raised similar concerns, alleging that the question paper favoured those who chose English. They urged the TNPSC to maintain uniform difficulty levels across both language options in future to ensure a level playing field.