Cheating claims arise in exam as testing body denies charges in Turkey

ISTANBUL

The Public Personnel Selection Examination was held over the weekend of July 7-8 all around Turkey. The exam was canceled in 2010 over cheating claims. AA photo

Allegations of cheating in the Public Personnel Selection Examination (KPSS) were denied by the Turkish testing body as “baseless” over the weekend.

On July 7 public personnel candidates entered the first phase of the KPSS, which continued yesterday with its second phase.

Allegations of cheating spread over the Internet before yesterday’s examination ended, with Dicle news agency claiming that the questions were stolen and handed out to certain candidates prior to the exam. Dicle posted five questions from the exam’s educational sciences section 76 minutes before the test officially ended at 5 p.m. The agency also claimed that a private course in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır sold the questions at a price of 21,000 Turkish Liras.

Allegations

A second allegation claimed that a website belonging to the Beyaz Kalem publishing house previously published 57 of the 60 questions asked in the general knowledge section of the KPSS. The allegations could not be verified as there is a 48-hour publishing ban on the questions asked in the KPSS.

Turkey’s Student Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM) denied the allegations, saying they aimed to cast a shadow on the examination’s credibility and slander the institution.

Forty people with alleged connections to the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) were detained on accusations of forming a cheating organization to substitute proficient people for candidates entering the KPSS exam using falsified documents. The gang allegedly charged candidates a fee of 10,000 to 20,000 liras for their skilled “wildcards” to take the exam instead of them.

Police raided locations in eight provinces after the KPSS first phase ended on July 7, detaining 40 suspects, of whom 25 were “wildcards.” The raids were launched after a seven-month investigation by the police. The gang, reportedly lead by a KCK member from the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, managed to place hundreds of people in key positions in the Turkish state apparatus, including positions in ministries. Alleged gang members held millions of liras’ worth of belongings, which are in the process of being confiscated by authorities, reports said.

The KPSS educational sciences section had been canceled upon allegations of cheating in 2010.