The preliminary examination of civil services exams conducted by UPSC has reached such a level of absurdity that now experts call these exams a kind of lottery where most just bank on their luck to succeed. There are plethora of examples of aspirants failing to clear the preliminary exams repeatedly and then start cracking the same exam with very high merits – is it strategy or caliber that is winning? It is most shameful that one of the most prestigious and important exams in our country has got so distorted and reduced to guesswork and luck, writes former IAS officer V.S.Pandey
In democracies, people vote freely and establish governments to primarily serve them and promote their interests, welfare etc. Governments, in turn , create institutions to execute the mandate of the people and to fulfill the goals assigned to them by the electorates. Institutions, thus created, always need to be reminded that they are there only to serve the interests of the people at large and their own ego, prejudices and self-interests have to be subordinated. But seldom does this happen- in our country particularly. No sooner does an institution get established, the tendency of those manning them, is to start taking decisions colored by their own personal prejudices and perceptions. Consequently, the real stakeholders’ interests start taking a beating. The education sector is one such critical sector where the interest of students, the sole stakeholder has always remained subservient to the interest of other minor stakeholders like the management, teachers, non-teaching staff etc. The unfortunate part of the education system in our country is that the real stakeholder- the students’ voice and their convenience is seldom given due consideration. The rigidity inbuilt in our education system is not the creation or handiwork of the student community but caters to looking after the comfort and ease of those manning the system, teachers and management included. The entrance exams conducted by various institutions in our country are another example of this template. In the name of conducting entrance tests like Joint Entrance Exam JEE, NEET, CUET, CAT and a plethora of such exams, the life of the sole stakeholder of education system in our country called “student” has been totally jeopardized. These entrance exams have become tools in the hands of an arbitrary few to harass the students and have become so overpowering that imparting good education has been almost forgotten in the ensuing melee. Those involved in the conduct of these exams excel at tricking the hapless students with such questions which even most of the teachers will find difficult to answer! This unfortunate trend has led to the mushrooming of coaching centers in every nook and corner of our country led by “Kota city” like examples. Earlier the working of these testing bodies was so opaque that they never even used to declare the cut off marks or even issue mark sheets to the students. One such major exam had the practice of not even allowing the students to carry home the question papers. Some of these incomprehensible practices were demolished about two decades back but many of the ills are still continuing to harass students persistently.
One such practice is the introduction of preliminary exams in the name of weeding out non serious students. The question is who is omnipotent enough to judge and arbitrarily decide which one is serious and which one is a non-serious candidate -as every aspirant is spending his/her time , energy , money and resources, hence he/she should be given the opportunity to write the exam like everyone else – as is done in the education system where every student is allowed to sit for exams, whether serious or non-serious. This practice is the result of a mindset which does not prioritize students but instead endeavors to increase the comfort and lessen the burden of those involved in the conducting of these exams. Unfortunately, the governments, have continued to be indifferent to the rot that has engulfed our whole education system and been so detrimental to our formal education system.
Similar is the situation of the competitive exams for civil services conducted by Union Public Service Commission and state service commissions. There has been frequent outcry from civil services aspirants due to the question paper setters and the pattern of exams. Recently a plea has been moved before the Delhi High Court challenging the preliminary examination of Civil Services Examination 2023, which was held by Union Public Service Commission. The plea seeks a direction to UPSC and Union Government to re-conduct the preliminary exam and General Studies Paper I and Paper II. The aspirants have also challenged the June 12 notification declaring the results of the preliminary examination. In addition to the above, relief is also sought on the ground that so many questions were included in the exam papers which are disproportionately vague, testing candidates’ ability to answer only on the basis of guesswork, which is not only arbitrary but defies all principles of fairness, logic and rationality.
The issue raised in this petition are very important and relevant. Who authorized the paper setters to set such question papers where the questions asked cannot be answered by even most experts of that subject. Are the question setters interested in displaying their own personal knowledge and depth in the subject or are they testing the capabilities and capacities of aspirants, is the question which those manning these systems have failed to answer.
The current preliminary examination of civil services exams conducted by UPSC has reached such a level of absurdity that now experts call these exams a kind of lottery where most just bank on their luck to succeed. There are plethora of examples of aspirants failing to clear the preliminary exams repeatedly and then start cracking the same exam with very high merits – is it strategy or caliber that is winning? It is most shameful that one of the most prestigious and important exams in our country has got so distorted and reduced to guesswork and luck.
It is time the government urgently looks into the issues pertaining to the CSE exam in particular and the JEE type exams in general which are more oriented to rejecting students rather than selecting them on merit. The preliminary exam system, which was introduced in the year 1979 by UPSC on the recommendations of Kothari commission, has failed to achieve any of the objectives set forth in its report except that it has lowered the burden of the examining body, i.e., UPSC at the cost of the student community. The Government will be well advised to junk the concept of screening of “non serious students/aspirants” and scrap the preliminary exams totally and revert to the pre 1979 position which was much better than the current system which aims only to ease the life of the exam managers and seems hell
bent on making the lives of students/ aspirants miserable. It would also be in the fitness of things for the government to cancel the preliminary examination 2023 in view of the pleadings raised against it and convey a strong message to those manning the system to mend their ways and stop harassing aspirants.
(Vijay Shankar Pandey is former Secretary Government of India)
