No cancelling of Public personnel exam: ÖSYM

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

The Public Personnel Selection Examination (KPSS), which took place on July 7 and 8, was fairly conducted in all exam centers and will not be canceled, Turkey’s Student Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM) head Ali Demir said on Sept. 7.

There have been strong claims that the exam results were significantly miscalculated. However, according to Demir, ÖSYM has only received 800 objection letters since the day the results were announced, even though some candidates had sent more than one letter to them.

Demir said the question and answer papers of those who filed objection petitions were individually examined in detail, and that ÖSYM had detected no miscalculation as a result of the examinations.He indicated that the exam was carefully evaluated according to the principles and rules stated in 2012 KPSS license handbook, which was presented to the public on the opening day of the applications.

Following claims that applicants cheated in the public personnel exam, 34 people were sent to court in July.

Nevertheless, Demir said the organization did not believe there was any truth to the claims. Allegations of cheating surfaced even before the KPSS ended, but they were vigorously denied by the authorities as “baseless.” The KPSS educational sciences section was cancelled following allegations of cheating in 2010 as well.

Forty people were initially detained on accusations that they had formed an organization aimed at cheating on the exam by substituting knowledgeable people for candidates taking the KPSS exam using falsified documents on July 8. The gang allegedly charged candidates a fee of 10,000 to 20,000 Turkish Liras to have skilled imposters take the exam in their place.