PUNE: Even as an earlier demand of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) aspirants – implementation of the new syllabus of the state services examination from 2025 instead of 2023 – has just been accepted, MPSC students in Pune have once again called a state-wide protest on Wednesday, March 1, to demand that the MPSC technical department exam pattern, too, be implemented from 2025 instead of this year.
With MPSC aspirants from all over the state converging at Pune Wednesday, police security will be deployed. According to information shared by the protesting group, the students will sit on a hunger strike Wednesday at Balgandharva chowk in Pune. The protesters have warned the MPSC and state government that they will continue the hunger strike till their demands are met. The new pattern of MPSC exam will be descriptive with a total nine papers instead of the earlier six papers in subjective pattern.
Kirti Jambhale, one of the aspirants, said, “While the language paper one ‘Marathi’ and language paper two ‘English’ will be of 300 marks each, the remaining seven papers including Marathi or English medium essay, general studies 1, general studies 2, general studies 3, general studies 4, optional subject paper one and optional subject paper two will be of 250 marks each. So our demand is that even the technical department exam pattern as per the new syllabus be implemented from 2025.”
Santosh Bhange, an aspirant from Osmanabad studying in Pune, said, “Apart from this, there will be an interview of 275 marks. So, the total marks will be 2,025. The syllabus for the general studies 1, general studies 2 and general studies 3 papers will include international, national and state-related subjects while the general studies 4 paper will be on ethics, character and aptitude of the candidates. We can choose one optional subject from a total 24 subjects. All this is so complicated and we have already prepared as per the old pattern and syllabus so our demand is that this decision should be revised.”
{{/usCountry}}Santosh Bhange, an aspirant from Osmanabad studying in Pune, said, “Apart from this, there will be an interview of 275 marks. So, the total marks will be 2,025. The syllabus for the general studies 1, general studies 2 and general studies 3 papers will include international, national and state-related subjects while the general studies 4 paper will be on ethics, character and aptitude of the candidates. We can choose one optional subject from a total 24 subjects. All this is so complicated and we have already prepared as per the old pattern and syllabus so our demand is that this decision should be revised.”
{{/usCountry}}The new descriptive exam pattern will have a total nine papers as against the six papers of the earlier subjective pattern. The total marks will be 1,750 as against the total 800 marks of the previous pattern exam. A major change is that the scores of the two language papers will not be included in the merit score which will impact the students’ overall scores. To qualify for the merit score, a candidate will have to score 25% marks in each paper.