By not providing a level playing field to candidates from rural areas and those who have studied in a regional language, CSAT eliminates 70 per cent of them at the entry level itself
The storm in the country over the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) screening test known as CSAT (Civil Services Aptitude Test) seems to have attracted attention, not as much of the academics as of the common man. Civil services recruitment tests are increasingly being considered by many as public examinations that reflect little on the academic components of a discipline but rely on rote memory. That is why it is being said that an engineer who graduates from an IIT becomes an IAS officer with history or anthropology as his subject. These tests are not directed to examine the achievement (learning measure) of a candidate, but evaluate scholastic capability of the incumbent.
Civil services captured the imagination of the common Indian when the D.S. Kothari Committee recommended subtle changes to the method of examination — aimed at accommodating all sections of aspirants — from 1978. This was also a period that saw results of democratisation of education in the post-independence period as marginalised social groups entered mainstream public service.
Bureaucrats as facilitators
Economic reforms in 1991 created many opportunities, while shattering existing structures and values. This also impacted the way civil services functioned. Bureaucrats became facilitators to ease conditions for entry into once-restricted sectors. A new philosophy of New Public Management (NPM) was introduced in our system of governance even as it was discarded elsewhere.
Yet, some elite sections, which had no experience either of life in a rural area or the kind of deprivation suffered by people there, considered it a boon and an opportunity for the development of an emerging nation. They did not realise that governance is different from management and that it requires empathy and moral integrity.
Even as the debate over the relevance of the existing system of governance was on, the government appointed the Y.K. Alagh Committee in 2001 to review the existing pattern of the exams. The committee felt that a majority of candidates were opting for subjects based on “scorability” rather than specialisation. It recommended replacing optional subjects with three sets of compulsory papers.
It was the Alagh Committee which, for the first time, mooted the idea of a CSAT. However, the government did not accept its recommendations; in the meantime, the Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) recommended that “the Preliminary Examination consist of an objective type test having one or two papers on general studies including the Constitution of India, the Indian Legal system, Indian economy, Polity, history and culture. There should be no optional subjects.”
Confused with too many committees and different recommendations, the UPSC constituted another committee with S.K. Khanna, ex-chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), as its chairman, and with engineering and management professors and bureaucrats as its members. The committee recommended a CSAT format, which was discussed within the UPSC and a draft sent to the government for approval. It is well known that there was no unanimity in the committee. The present CSAT was notified. Having been part of the exams for three years now, it is due for review.
It is unfair to blame the UPSC singularly for the current state of affairs. Though it is an autonomous constitutional body, it is always the government which has the final say on issues of policy. It seems the government is looking into the matter and some reasonable order is expected soon. Candidates who have chosen regional languages allege that their prospects to become civil servants are weakened. Data from annual reports of UPSC show that there is some merit in their grievances as the number of candidates taking a regional language as an optional subject has come down; meanwhile, the number of successful engineering graduates has increased in the three-year (2010-13) period.
Elitist
There are experts who argue that it is not possible to test non-cognitive competencies and therefore testing based on analytical and problem solving skills needs to be retained. However, test scores are always considered as subjective judgments, more so in a pluralistic society like India, where the civil service is the dream career of many educated youngsters belonging to different socio-economic and educational backgrounds. Even SAT — conducted in the United States for college admissions — is considered biased in favour of whites.
CSAT and the Common Admission Test (CAT) belong to the same category. Aspirants seem to think of them being elitist and not enabling a level playing field to the majority (around 70 per cent) of them who come from rural backgrounds, with regional language as a medium and from the deprived sections. Thus, it can be argued that 70 per cent of the aspirants are eliminated at the entry level itself.
Further, our education system today is totally polarised. Students who come from the urban middle class are sent to elite schools where they are taught the prerequisites of reasoning, analytical skills, interpersonal skills, mental ability and all that is required for management and engineering education. The schools in rural areas and those which impart instruction in regional languages do not have the academic and financial resources to prepare students for tests like CSAT. Is it moral and honest to test students in subjects that were not taught when we need to qualify candidates not for a degree but for lifelong service?
No comments:
Post a Comment