The number stared back from the notice board like a cruel typo. Out of nearly 5,100 candidates, only thirty-nine cleared the written examination for Post Graduate Teacher (Computer Science)conducted by the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC).
Behind that number lay a deeper wound: 1,672 posts out of 1,711 advertised vacancies remained unfilled.
Candidates counted again, just to be sure. They had done that a lot lately—counting marks, attempts, and years. Like every other applicant, they were HTET-qualified, officially deemed eligible to teach. On paper, they belonged to a state that proudly produces UPSC toppers, NET qualifiers, and researchers working in IITs and central universities.
Yet here, in Haryana’s own recruitment examination, even 35 per cent marks had become unreachable. Aspirants demanded “third party re-evaluation, answer sheets display on HPSC website and doing away with 35% criteria which was allegedly used to reject them as there is no challenge to subjective examination”.
The Commission said the exam was “difficult.”
The candidates said it was “designed to fail.”
This was not an isolated storm.
In the Assistant Professor (College Cadre) recruitment, the same pattern had already unfolded—like a warning no one acted upon.
On December 15, 2025, the Economics subject test results were declared:
- 43 posts advertised
- 24 candidates qualified
- 21 finally recommended
In Philosophy:
- 3 posts advertised
- 2 candidates qualified
In Mass Communication:
- 8 posts advertised
- 7 candidates qualified
In Defence Studies:
- 23 posts advertised
- Only 5 candidates cleared
Then came English, one of the subjects with the largest intake:
- 613 posts advertised
- Only 145 candidates qualified
Even reserved category candidates, for whom constitutional safeguards exist, failed to cross the same 35 per cent cut-off. The examination did not discriminate. It simply eliminated.
Opposition parties raised questions in press conferences. Candidates raised them in coaching centres, WhatsApp groups, tea stalls, and protest sites. How could aspirants from Haryana clear UPSC, NET, and other national-level examinations, yet fail so spectacularly in their own state commission’s papers?
The Commission’s answers remained technical.
The candidates’ reality was emotional.
Years of preparation. Loans taken. Jobs postponed. Families reassured with “Bas ek aur exam.”
And then came a result sheet that felt less like assessment and more like erasure.
Statistically, most candidates had done what 99.2 per cent did—failed.
But they knew the failure was not individual.
It was structural.
It was mathematical.
And it was repeating itself—one recruitment notice at a time.
In Haryana, the posts are vacant.
The classrooms are waiting.
And the youth—qualified, prepared, and exhausted—remain outside, wondering how 35 per cent became an impossible dream.
In a first-of-its-kind move in HPSC’s history, the Commission re-advertised the PGT Computer Science posts even before the ongoing recruitment process was fully concluded.
HPSC Secretary Mukesh Ahuja, IAS, observed:
“The PGT Computer Science results were declared on February 5, and only 39 candidates scored above 35 per cent. After deliberations, the HPSC decided to re-advertise 1,672 posts so that the Commission can provide recommendations for all 1,711 vacancies originally advertised.”
Meanwhile, a group of HPSC aspirants who were “failed” in the Assistant Professor (English) subjective examination have been sitting on an indefinite dharna near the HPSC office for over a month. Braving winter cold and rain in roadside tents, the protest has seen a daily surge in participation by aspirants from other disciplines.
