RTI success with science olympiads

[blessings.indian]

Dear Friends,

I want to share my RTI success regarding Sciene Olympiads programmes which is run by HBCSE-TIFR in India. I filed an RTI to get following information:

Information regarding Indian National Astronomy Olympiad (Junior and Senior), Junior Science Olympiad, and Indian National Mathematics Olympiad:

a. Number of students in each subject for OCSC camp 2008.

b. list of selected students for OCSC camp 2008.

c. Complete merit list (with ranks, roll nos. names, and marks) of above mentioned Olympiads.

d. official solutions and question papers.

e. list of evaluators with their designation and affiliations.

f. Criteria for selection in to the OCSC camp 2008.

g. Were all these selection done via nationwide exam?

At first my postal order was rejected by HBCSE PIO though it should have sufficed. I appealed to the appelate authority.

I will put up the complete merit lists, evaluators etc. soon!! Look out for them.

I am examinig these records currently. it seems though that there is serious discrepancy regarding IJSO. The website list published by HBCSE and the OCSC list now provided to me under RTI for IJSO do not match. But I still need to look at them. Will keep you updated.

[krishna_bangalore]

This is a eye opener.

[karira]

Please give a update on this.

Is this Science Olympiad something similar to National Science Talent Scholarship (NSTS) ?

[gokulpr]

Hi Blessings,

Hope u went through the papers, let us know your inferences or attach the original RTI replies for some more possible evaluations .

[blessings.indian]

Hi friends

First of all I am very sorry for this late reply. But here I have some news. As I mentioned earlier I got all the relevant merit list of IMO/IJSO/IAO(Jr. & Sr.). I specially want to mention here IJSO case. I found some irregularity in provided information which I am not clear about.

I am attaching 2 list here in one PDF file. 1st one is IJSO merit list which was 2nd stage exam conducted by HBCSE-TIFR somewhere arnd Feb. 08. 2nd list is candidates selected for 3rd stage exam which is called OCSC camp. This camp is organised by HBCSE to select students to REPRESNT INDIA AT INTERNATIONAL JOUNIOR SCIENCE OLYMPIAD. This year it will held in Indonesia in December.

Now interesting point is this that there are 9 Students in OCSC (3rd stage) list which are not in 2nd stage list. See 30-38 no. in OCSC attachement. Further, this OCSC is not similar to one which is posted on HBSCE website as official students list who are selected to attend OCSC camp.

HBCSE web shows list of only first 29 candidates of list provided to me. What is truth I am not clear but it seems HBCSE hide something or more clearly about those 9 extra students from public. I checked in merit list and found that 1 student (Bhat Shrihari) who appeard for IJSO in 2nd stage is far behind offical cutoff. (see Rank. no. 85 in IJSO merit list). But he is in this RTI OCSC list at no. 30. More importantly He is also selected for International team.

Question is open to public now and if any body has any idea then please clear me, or suggest me how to extract further information from HBCSE, which can make matter more clear. From my point of view "I smell some irregularities in selection of team for olympiad". If any body is interested then I can send him full RTI reply.

- An Indian

[karira]

Why don't you file a RTI application, enclosing both the lists, and ask the reasons for the discrepancies ? The matter is definitely in "Public Interest" and should fall under Sec 4(1)(c) of "suo moto" disclosure.

If you know someone who has been "affected" by this, you can also ask for "reasons" for selections under Section 4(1)(d).

If you are located close by, ask for inspection of all records.

If you find that your suspicions turn out to be true, this information should definitely come out in the Public Domain - via the media.

[blessings.indian]

Hi

I was away for some days. I had some internet problem at home. So I was not able to upload the part of information provided through one of RTI agency regarding the same matter (science Olympiad). I will be putting it very soon as soon as web services are fixed at my home.

[blessings.indian]

Hi to all

Here again i m back. Fortunately my net services are fixed and so I am attaching their explanation regarding the discrepancy in list. This was provided to me through the same RTI agency.

Their explanation also indicates that selection for IJSO was not done through an all india exam but they had another mode which they didnt make it public before exam. See Point (f) and (g) of attachement.

So now I must admit that they didnt hide any information. But you read their explanation and draw your own conclusion. As a well wisher of transperent exam system in India, I have my own view regarding the matter. I also apologize for putting part of the information lately. But since I am not a tech savyy so it took me time to do so.

I welcome any query in the matter.

[taurus]

This is a very nice piece of information. Thanks for putting it here.