Need to restructure entrance exam for civil services

Lt Gen NPS Hira (retd)

Former Chairman, Punjab Public Service Commission

THE results of the annual civil services examinations, conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), were declared recently. For the past few years, the exam methodology, its efficacy to select the best, and the brutal competition among the aspirants have become subjects of debate. The civil services need the best human resources. The UPSC has a system in place to select the best candidates. However, are they really the most suitable? A closer examination of the system reveals that the present system has led to some unintended consequences, especially for those candidates who do not make it.

Many parents in India are keen to see their children enter the civil services. The selection process is extremely tough. This year, only one applicant out of almost 1,300 made the cut. Since some candidates who apply do not appear in the exams, the actual success rate is roughly one out of 700-800. Despite the heavy odds, aspirants continue to appear in the exams year after year. Unfortunately, a significant number of them end up frustrated.

An important question is: Are we selecting the best? A candidate in the general category is allowed six attempts, backward castes candidates can make nine attempts and for Scheduled Castes, there is no limit on the number of attempts, though there is the age limit of 37 years. It is almost a thumb rule of any competitive examination that if a candidate is allowed to make repeated attempts, his or her performance in the written exam keeps improving with every attempt. The interview is a more complex affair. The performance in the interview normally does not improve as much with successive attempts because it demands greater originality of ideas and expression from the candidate. The weightage for the written test is about 87 per cent. The interview weightage is only around 13 per cent. Those clearing the examination in the fourth to sixth attempts generally make it as they are able to score high in the written test. The British, who started this examination in India, allowed only two attempts. It was a decision based on logic. When we allow more than two attempts, the candidates keep improving their written exam performance every year for the simple reason that they have been reading the study material under the same syllabus, with only a little variation in current affairs. So, in the end, we may select a very hard-working and perseverant civil servant, but he may not be the brightest or an original thinker. The high number of attempts allowed are partly due to political reasons and partly due to lobbying by the coaching industry, whose turnover runs into thousands of crores of rupees.

The examination has three stages: preliminary, mains and interview. A candidate in the general category who takes six chances does it over a period of almost eight to 10 years. In the reserved category, it may go up to 15 years. On the face of it, the odds may appear to be something like 800 to 1, but in reality, it is the same candidates appearing again and again. So, for a persistent candidate, the real odds of making it are around one out of 200 candidates. For the top three services (IAS, IPS and IFS), it is about one out of 400-500. On the whole, the rejection rate is still unacceptably high at around 99.5 per cent. Unfortunately, it is not the candidate but the system which we have designed for him that is responsible for getting him sucked into it. The moot point is should the candidates be allowed to continue appearing for three to five years? The hapless parents, too, realise this only after they have wasted a lot of their hard-earned money on coaching.

Allowing so many attempts, be it in the general or reserved categories, really does not help. Ultimately, the number of candidates getting selected, whatever may be the category, remains the same. A candidate may be very bright, but it is extremely difficult for him to compete in his first attempt with another candidate who has been preparing for up to 8-10 years. So, we are being unfair to the bright and also to the not-so-bright. It stands to reason that the number of attempts be reduced to two or maximum three. The reserved category may be allowed one more attempt.

If the number of attempts are reduced, about 80 per cent of the candidates selected will be the same. About 20 per cent may change and that change would be for the better, both for the system and the candidates. A large number of attempts is only benefiting the coaching industry, wasting the resources of the UPSC and also taking a heavy toll on the candidates. Most of them end up missing other bright career opportunities.

Another issue is whether the UPSC needs to get a psychologist on its interview panel, like in military interviews. It is a problem to objectively quantify psychology in terms of marks. A psychologist may like to exercise the veto; therefore, it is very difficult to incorporate one in a government selection system due to its legal implications. The present interview panel, which consists of experienced people, has stood the test of time. The real problem is with the number of attempts.

One more knotty issue is the ‘optional subjects’ allowed in the examination. There are two optional papers with a weightage of as much as 500 marks out of a total of 1,750. The optional subjects have little useful outcome in selection. It is also very tough for any examination body to deal with this complication in its assessment. The Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) has done away with the optional subjects. This has helped the PPSC reduce the load on the candidates and also enabled more objective assessment due to a level playing field.

A high number of aspirants for the civil services is a good sign. We need to ensure that they do not get mired down in this process. Let this examination not become an unintended trap for the candidates, messing up their lives.

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