“Civil Service Preliminary examination 2014”

“Civil Service Preliminary examination 2014”

Scores of students now a days are staging a protest in Delhi, demanding scrapping of Civil Service Aptitude Test (CSAT). UPSC aspirants are protesting against the pattern of the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) which they believe gives an unfair advantage to English-speaking students while leaving candidates from Hindi or regional languages-background at a disadvantage. They want the CSAT to be scrapped. Protesters raising slogans against UPSC, calling CSAT discriminatory against aspirants from Hindi background. Daily protests against the controversial Civil Service Aptitude Test has indeed left them with very little time to study, but who is to be blamed? If they are the true aspirants then who told them to participate into such protests and misuse their valuable time.

Those UPSC Aspirants who are busy wasting these precious moments in protesting for something that is absolutely incorrect and baseless. Their protests against the Civil Services Aptitude Test refuse to die down for some aspirants who are not confident and unsure about the fate of their exam. These students who should now have been busy preparing are instead on the streets, protesting against an exam, which they believe discriminates against students from rural areas and humanities background. They just want the Civil Services Aptitude Test to be scrapped off. Why? The reason even they are not aware of.

It's not just that the candidates are from Hindi-speaking belt, who participate in this exam but the aspirants are from entire India. Why can’t the students not accept that the pass outs are the ones who have the capability to sustain a lot of responsibilities on their shoulders even under peer pressure? This is a very crucial competitive exam not a simple school exam where the teachers assess their students. The best amongst all have to be chosen. All regional languages have already been given appropriate privileges.  Just because of a few notorious aspirants how can an Organisation play with a career of large number of those aspirants who are seriously sitting at home busy preparing for this exam from the past one year or more. Date postponed shall be a big pressure on those true candidates who shall then be busy for the preparation of mains which is hardly a few of months ahead.

If a student from Hindi speaking belt is successful in this exam and tomorrow he’s posted in any non-Hindi speaking state like Tamil Nadu, Kerela etc. where Hindi is not an official language then how will the bureaucrats work as learning Tamil or English will delay the official work and he/she will not be able to carry out his/her responsibilities as an administrator. It’s a sheer apathy for those who are not sure of clearing this exam and wasting their time for unlawful purpose. This exam entails to shoulder the responsibility of those administrators who run the country then why should it not be extremely tough so that we get the best out of the best.

Even coaching centres are uncertain about preparing students. With protests against UPSC's Civil Service Aptitude Test intensifying by each passing day, uncertainty is looming large over the date of this year's exam. All eyes are now on the government, their only hope is that the issue is resolved at the earliest. Civil service aspirants has already got two additional attempts at cracking the UPSC examination along with a relaxation in the upper age limit besides now there’s only one subject for preparation in the mains instead of two earlier.

The row over CSAT has been raised in Parliament too.The government has urged the aspirants to call off their protest which intensified after the UPSC started issuing admit cards to the aspirants for the preliminary exam scheduled to be held next month. The different political parties has also started supporting this agitation only for their political gains as in some states the election are very near and they wanted to influence our youth for their personal gains. How many politicians are there who has sent their children to Hindi medium schools? If we really carry out a survey then we will observe that number will be marginal, then how they are supporting this agitation of students.

There are two compulsory papers of 200 marks each in the preliminary examination. The first paper is known as General Studies (G.S) and second paper is CSAT. The CSAT, second paper carries questions on comprehension, interpersonal skills including communication skills, logical reasoning and analytical ability, decision-making and problem-solving, general mental ability, basic numeracy, and English language comprehension skills (of Class X level). They are so simple questions that anyone can answer for example this passage was in 2011 paper:

Passage-II

I opened the bag and packed the boots in; and then, just as I was going to close it, a horrible idea occurred to me that had I packed my toothbrush? I don't know how it is, but I never do know whether I've packed my toothbrush. My toothbrush is a thing that haunts me when I'm travelling, this makes my life a misery, I dream that haven't packed it, and wake up in a cool perspiration, and get out of bed and hurry for it. And, in the morning, I pack it before I have used it, and it is always the last thing I turn out of the bag; and then repack and forget it, and have to rush upstairs for it at the last moment and carry it to the railway station, wrapped in my pocket-handkerchief. 

67. When he was going to close the bag, the idea that occurred to him was

(a) Unpleasant 
(b) sad 
(c) fantastic 
(d) amusing

68. What makes his life miserable whenever he undertakes travelling?

(a) Going to railway station 
(b) Forgetting the toothbrush
(c) Packing his bag
(d) Bad dreams

69. His toothbrush is finally

(a) In his bag

(b) In his bed 

(c) In his handkerchief 

(d) Lost

If students cannot even answer such type of questions then what else do they want? Students have been objecting to the level of aptitude and English language questions being asked in the CSAT claiming they are much above the standard prescribed for the examination. This is for all of us to read and understand whether they are right in their protest or wrong. We all should not forget that the civil services examination is conducted in three stages- preliminary, main, and Personality Test- to choose candidates for very crucial and responsible posts of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and allied services.

Today, we want to compete with China whereas their (China) present regime is encouraging English so that they can contest with India and other English speaking countries not only increasing their business instead on other fields too. Are they anti national and promoting foreign language in China? Is writing or giving thrust on English is a crime? Students are complaining that inclination towards English is anti-national and promoting it by UPSC is a heinous crime and tomorrow if we are not wearing Kurta-Dhoti instead of Shirt and Trouser will it be an Anti-national/social activity. As one nationality is lost if one wants to lose it and why should we shy away with English as it is to our official language with Hindi.   

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