Patna (Bihar): Educator and YouTuber Faizal Khan on Monday once again spoke out against the "normalisation" process in the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) exam.
He emphasised that discrimination must not occur against students.
He noted that normalisation is used when exams can't be held on a single day or when student numbers are high and said that it will be unfair to students, particularly in General Studies exams, as it can lead to inconsistent results and the method is more suitable for subjects like mathematics where marks can be adjusted uniformly.
While speaking with ANI on the recent controversy related to the 'change in exam pattern' and 'normalisation process' regarding the BPSC Preliminary Examination, Faizal Khan, also known as Khan Sir expressed concern over the potential for discrimination among students if different sets of questions are used in various districts.
"Normalisation' is done when exams can't be held one day or the number of students is too much, and in different regions, different sets of questions are given to students. For example, in Bihar, you give three different questions in Bhagalpur, Buxar, and Shivanj...what happens is that if you give me these 3 different sets of question papers, I will get different marks, and I won't be getting the same marks for all question papers," he said.
Khan Sir has been actively advocating for the BPSC to hold the exam in a single shift to avoid the need for normalisation.
"This particular formula can be applied only to Mathematics...but it won't apply to General Studies... This discrimination must not happen with students," he added.
Khan Sir also addressed the issue of police actions during the protests, where students demanded that exams be held in 'one shift and one paper' to avoid the normalisation process in early December. He stated that he was not mistreated by the police following his arrest during the protest.
He explained that he joined the protest because the police lathi-charged the students, and he stayed back because he thought the students demands wouldn't be met if he had left.
"Police did not misbehave with me in any way; I was sick for the past one and a half months. I thought to take proper treatment once the BPSC exam was over...When in the morning, students were lathi-charged, so I went there...and I thought if I left (the protest), the students demand wouldn't be fulfilled, so I stayed back, and that way my health further deteriorated," he said.
Earlier this month, students studying for BPSC had protested against the change in exam patterns and the normalisation process and demanded that exams be held in 'one shift and one paper' to avoid the normalisation process. —ANI