Turkey’s state-run Student Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM) has canceled the 2022 Public Personnel Selection Exam (KPSS) following allegations of fraud, with the new examination process set to begin next month, Sözcü newspaper reported on Thursday.
The cancellation follows the launching of an investigation by Turkey’s State Supervisory Board (DDK) over claims that some of the KPSS questions for this year were made public by a publishing house ahead of the exam, according to Sözcü.
The KPSS is a central examination held by the ÖSYM and used for determining the people who will be assigned as civil servants for the first time. Close to 1 million people have taken the KPSS examination in Turkey annually over the past few years.
The KPSS tests administered on July 31 will be held again, the newspaper cited Ali Ersoy, the newly-appointed head of ÖSYM said, while the exams scheduled for Aug. 6,7 and 14 have been postponed.
Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Yıldırım Kaya kicked off the debate on Turkey’s civil servant examination earlier this week when said that least 10 KPSS questions from the July 31 exam were the same as those published by Yediiklim Publishing, BirGün newspaper reported.
The claim was backed up by social media users, who took the exam and who posted the correspondings questions on social media.
The DDK then launched an investigation on the orders of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan while former ÖSYM head Halis Aygün was fired by Erdoğan and replaced with Ersoy, BirGün newspaper reported on Wednesday.
“The data obtained as a result of the examination of DDK regarding the 2022 KPSS will be meticulously evaluated and the necessary steps will be taken immediately. We will never allow even a single child to be victimised,” Evrensel newspaper cited Erdoğan as saying, regarding the ongoing probe.
Ahval