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Distrust in Turkish testing body delays personnel exam
ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News
Students protest the exam scandals
The distrust created by a series of scandals surrounding a national exam overseen by Turkey’s Student Selection and Placement Center, or ÖSYM, have led to the delay of another center-run test slated for this month.
Amid the ongoing controversy over the university entrance exam, or YGS, State Minister Hayati Yazıcı said he instructed officials to delay the Public Personnel Selection Examination, or KPSS, which was scheduled to take place in May, daily Akşam reported Friday.
“We planned to hold the KPSS exam [this month]. The preparations were ongoing. We planned it for May. But we canceled it; I instructed it in that way,” Yazıcı said after a live broadcast in Trabzon on Wednesday night where the ÖSYM’s troubles were discussed.
The delay in the KPSS A-group exam affects university graduates and other candidates who want to become public employees.
Though he said he did not believe the allegations that there had been cheating on the YGS, Yazıcı said the debate on the issue was taking a toll.
“The debate on [cheating] allegations is being exploited and has become a tool for political debate. I didn’t want to take a risk on the issue ahead of the election so I delayed it [the KPSS exam] to July,” the state minister said. Turkey will hold general elections June 12.
The educational sciences section of the KPSS was canceled last year upon allegations of cheating. The investigation on the issue yet has not been completed.
The number of complaints to the ÖSYM in regard to alleged miscalculation of points on the YGS exam has meanwhile reached 20,000. The deadline for complaints is May 27.
The ÖSYM has recently come under fire for a series of mistakes including allegations that there was a “code” revealing some answers on the YGS, which took place March 27; errors in the exam booklets sent to some prisons for the YGS; and mistakes in the printed versions of the booklets for the higher education license exam, or ALES.
The alleged miscalculation of points on the recently announced YGS results is the latest in the list of controversies surrounding the testing body.
The ÖSYM meanwhile announced Friday that the application period of the Undergraduate Students Placement Test, or LYS, the second round of the YGS, had been extended until May 11. The applications for the LYS started April 29 and were scheduled to end Friday
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