90% Candidates Fail Panjabi Test; Future of 2,500 Students Jeopardized

In March 2024, nearly 90% of the applicants who appeared for the Panjabi language eligibility test — mandatory for getting a govt. job in Panjab — failed the examination. The exam is compulsory for those aspiring for Group C and D posts of the Panjab govt. if they have not studied Panjabi at matriculation-level. The exam comprises two papers: grammar and technical, each for 75 marks. A candidate is required to secure a minimum of 25 marks (33%) in each to pass. 69 students appeared in the examination of which only 7 (10%) could pass. Panjab language department director Harpreet Kaur said, ‘Majority of the applicants made a lot of spelling mistakes.' The exam is conducted four times a year. Meanwhile, in a case of the AAP versus SAD battles in the state, a senior secondary school in Chak Suhele Wala village in Jalalabad constituency, where SAD leader Vardev Singh Mann is the key management board member, has not been allowed to admit students this year. In January 2024 the Panjab govt. canceled its No Objection Certificate. In February 2024 the Central Board of Secondary Education disqualified the school. In March, the admissions to the school under the Right to Education stopped. The school, built over five acres of panchayat (village-woned) land, functional since 1999 could not start the new academic session risking the future of more than 2,500 students coming from Muktsar, Jalalabad, Fazilka, Abohar and even from nearby Haryana villages. Incidentally, Vardev’s father Zora Singh Mann was a three-term MP of Ferozepur.