AP hogs 95% science olympiad berths

Updated on: Friday, January 27, 2012

The brightest kids, the ones who know their sciences, come from Andhra Pradesh. Or at least that is what the results of a national-level test forces one to believe.

A blue-chip pan-India examination conducted to pick the best brains who will go on to flaunt their scientific brawn on the international stage, has selected almost everyone from this southern state, leaving thousands of other teenage test takers flummoxed.

Over 23,000 ninth-graders from schools across the country participated in the National Standard Examination in Junior Science (NSEJS) conducted by the Indian Association of Physics Teachers November last year. Only the first 300 were elevated to the second round which will be held at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, later this week. But, what has left students and selectors equally aghast is that 286 of the 300 who qualified in the first round came from Andhra Pradesh. Run through that list and 94 successful candidates sat for the exam at one centre in the education hub of Narayanaguda, Hyderabad - Ratna Junior College.

When the names of the 300 contenders were passed on to the HBCSE, it decided to extend the list to do away with the regional bias. "There seemed to be striking regional disparity and extending the merit list was the only fair thing to do," said Jayashree Ramdas, chair, National Steering Committee Science and Astronomy Olympiads.

So, five days hence, a second list was out. That hardly changed the equation. Again, of the top 535, a whopping 450, or 84%, spots were occupied by children from Andhra Pradesh. Ramdas added, "There are some places in India where the concentration of coaching classes is high. For instance, we get more students from Rajasthan and AP. But this year, the results are very extreme." Coaching classes that train students for the Olympiad see something amiss too. When the merit list was pored over, heads of some classes alleged that students belonging to one top coaching institute in AP had cornered a large number of slots.

M L Oglapurkar who heads IAPT ruled out any instance of cheating. While he acknowledged the fact that there were far too many students who qualified from AP this year, he reasoned it to the fact that the state had the highest enrolment of students who took the NSEJS. But there was more than what meets the eye, said some.

The rule of thumb is that most children who participate and go on to do well in the NSEJS have also invariably qualified in the National Talent Search Examination. "Out of 286 students from AP, only 18 have either cleared NTSE stage 1 or stage 2," said Saurabh Khanna, who trains students for competitive exams. Parents whose children were rejected only hope that the selection process has been fair. For, from these students, a final team of 12 will be carved out to represent India in the International Junior Astronomy Olympiad and the International Junior Science Olympiad.

When the merit list was pored over, heads of some classes alleged that students belonging to one top coaching institute in AP had cornered a large number of slots. Most did not rule out mass cheating.

Times of India

AP hogs 95% science olympiad berths

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