Anti student policies in admissions have pushed our education system to the brink of disaster and students are forced into the dragnet of flourishing coaching classes to qualify by being guided on ticking answers rapidly through intelligent guess work, writes former IAS officer V.S.Pandey
The Union Public Services Commission annually conducts the premier Civil Services Examinations to select candidates for Indian Administrative Services, Indian Foreign Service, Indian Police Service and many other important services of Union Government. This examination has seen many changes in the past -beginning with the year 1979 when on the basis of the Kothari Commission recommendations, UPSC introduced the preliminary examination system to eliminate non serious candidates initially and allowed only the so called screened candidates to write the mains examination. Before the 1979 CSE examination, IPS and allied services aspirants had to write two and three lower papers of their choice respectively in addition to three compulsory papers of general English, general knowledge and essay where as those aspiring for Indian Administrative Service and Indian Foreign Service had to write two additional higher level papers in addition to above mentioned six papers. UPSC used to set up two different interview boards to conduct personality tests for IAS /IFS and rest of the services including IPS, separately. The CSE exam then was in tune with the university examination systems prevalent across the country. Naturally the objective type tests introduced in the preliminary examination system was totally alien to students enrolled in bachelor degree courses and remains so even today. This change was the beginning of the widening chasm between the University education system and the conduct of competitive examinations. This preliminary examination system was later on borrowed by the IITs and introduced in the Joint Entrance Examination system, which led to complete erosion of our secondary education system. Subsequently, the UPSC conducted CSE exams got totally divorced from the university examination pattern though ironically the minimum qualification to appear for CSE exams remains a university bachelor degree. These changes are one of the vital reasons for deterioration of our education system.
Not long ago, any student performing well in his board exams could get admission in the engineering colleges based on the marks scored in board exams. University admissions were also solely based on the board examination results but this system was dismantled recently for central university admission system introduced recently. Why these absurd anti student ideas are accepted and willingly implemented so mindlessly are subject matter needing further investigations. But these anti student policies have pushed our education system to the brink of disaster and students are forced into the dragnet of flourishing coaching classes to qualify by being guided on ticking answers rapidly through intelligent guess work!
Unfortunately, corrective steps are not being taken about this scenario of our steadily deteriorating education system- reasons for which are many. Undoubtably, the current structure of our competitive and admission exams have saliently contributed to this degeneration over a period of time . Governments need to wake up and take corrective steps to bring the pattern of all the competitive exams in tune with our education system and its critical board examination system. These two should not remain divorced from each other much longer . Enough damage has been done in the past , it needs to be corrected urgently.
Another worrisome factor is the very low representation of women in government jobs. Although they constitute fifty percent of our population but they are lagging far behind their male counter parts as far as their participation in higher echelons of the governments are concerned. The available data show that female participation in various Central government jobs is as low as 10.93 per cent out of a total of 30.87 lakh employees. Looking at minimal representation of women in central government jobs, it’s imperative on the part of the governments to take the required steps to bridge this gap urgently.
This is the challenge before the government- to take all necessary steps to not only increase the participation of women in the nation’s economic pie but also to ensure that a conducive atmosphere is created to encourage women to become active in all respects and get empowered. This can be ensured by first taking steps which will enable women to move ahead in the short term quickly. Governments need to send a positive signal by plucking the low hanging fruits. One of the steps which the government of India should consider urgently is increasing the upper limit age for women candidates in all competitive exams like civil services exams etc. to thirty five years. This step will give a very positive message to women that government wants their increased participation in higher echelons of the system.
Increasing the upper age limit for women candidates for competitive exams like Civil Services Exams etc. would be a first step in this direction that will certainly boost the morale of women to a large extent .It will resonate with them that society is encouraging them to attain their rightful place in the nation’s social and economic life. This is an exigent step whose time has come.
(Vijay Shankar Pandey is former Secretary Government of India)
