Chennai: Recently released results of an exam conducted to recruit over 2,700 Assistant Professors to the government colleges in Tamil Nadu triggered a controversy, with political parties and academicians challenging the integrity of the results, citing an inconsistent pattern in the marks of many candidates.
Several academicians and political parties conducted a deep dive into the results and questioned how candidates who scored high marks in the elective paper that was conducted in an objective type could score in single digits and even zero in the essay paper. They demanded an immediate, comprehensive probe into the examination.
In accordance with an interim order of the Court, the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) issued a notification to fill 2,708 posts out of over 8,000 vacancies in the 188 government colleges in Tamil Nadu, sources said. The competitive examination for 48 main subjects was held on December 27, 2025, and the results were released on June 25, 2026.
A total of 42,064 candidates appeared for the exam, which comprises an eligibility paper, an elective paper (held in objective type) for 150 marks and an essay paper for 50 marks, TRB sources said. Critics say that several candidates who scored high marks in the objective-type exam -- for which answer keys were released-- scored zero marks, one mark or marks in single digits in the descriptive essay paper. They cite directly from results.
Political parties, including the Opposition DMK, AIADMK and PMK, have already called for a probe into the alleged irregularities. A former Anna University professor, on condition of anonymity, told PTI that the State government should immediately cancel the exam results and conduct an independent investigation into the issue.
"The results show that the persons who deserve to get good marks in the first paper, got nil marks in the second, cannot be acceptable", he added.
P B Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary, State Platform for Common School System-Tamil Nadu (SPCSS-TN) also said "TRB has a robust mechanism to conduct a foolproof examination. Despite such strong structure, the repeated controversy in various exams is cause for worry".
"Even after days since the issue (exam results) was discussed in public, the TRB is yet to come out with a convincing statement on what has happened in the evaluation," he said and added "the highest level officers concerned must take responsibility and come out with a statement on what exactly happened and how they wish to rectify".
"The best process will be to cancel the recruitment examination, and prepare a registry with names of all qualified guest lecturers and temporary teachers serving in the government arts and science colleges, and based on the seniority and other academic credits, the teacher vacancies should be filled", he urged.
However, a senior official from the Higher Education Department, seeking anonymity, said that the government is "seriously looking into the issue". "A proper official communication will be issued soon in this regard", he added. He also claimed that "TRB had only uploaded the marks awarded by the examiners who evaluated the answer sheets", he claimed.
Meanwhile, V Thangaraj, state president, Tamil Nadu All Government College UGC Qualified Guest Lecturers Association, said, "Various political parties have flayed these irregularities and voiced their support for our cause. On behalf of our association, we express our heartfelt gratitude to them. We sincerely hope the government will release a fresh exam notification that leaves absolutely no room for irregularities".
"To address the numerous irregularities found in these exam results, a delegation of our association met with the chairman of the TRB on Monday and submitted a formal memorandum", he said adding "when questioned about certain strange symbols appearing next to the exam scores on the sheets, officials dismissed it as a glitch, claiming the symbols were meant only for internal mark verification but appeared on the final list due to a server error".
This report was published from a syndicated wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.
