A systematic change

Updated on: Monday, April 05, 2010

The civil service has always attracted the best talent in the country. It is a formidable institution, with exceptional service conditions. We have all heard of the IAS (Indian Administrative Services), IPS (Indian Police Services), IFS (Indian Foreign Services), IRS (Indian Revenue Services), Indian Customs and Central Excise Services but you will be surprised to know that there is an array of about 23 services offered through the Civil Services Examination (CSE). Civil servants enjoy administrative power, high remuneration (the best in the government sector), immense prestige and status. And the incentives and perks that accompany the job can put even the best paid MNC job to shame.

But all this does not come easy. Civil servants are recruited after a fair and tough competitive examination after which they undergo intensive training before they take up their posts.

Explains V. P. Gupta, Director, Rau’s IAS Study Circle, “Candidates are put through three kinds of tests to ensure that those finally selected have a wide range of general awareness, analytical ability, content retention capacity, a cheerful mental disposition even under stressful conditions and some other officer-like qualities. Each one of these requirements is tested respectively through a Preliminary Examination (objective-type questions), Main Examination (descriptive-type questions) and Interview Test.”

However, now the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has decided to overhaul the Civil Services Examination from next year, and aspirants are likely to face a different examination pattern. Replacing the existing Preliminary examination will now be a Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT), in which candidates will have to appear in two objective-type papers with special emphasis on testing their ‘aptitude for the civil services’ as well as on the ‘ethical and moral dimension of decision-making.’

Both these papers will be given equal weightage and will substitute the one common paper (general awareness) and one optional paper (any particular subject of choice) which laid stress on subject knowledge. The change, as of now, will be effective only for the first stage of the CSE from next year onwards while the consequent stages, which are the CS (Main) Examination and Interview, are unlikely to change for the moment.

“Various committees including the second Administrative Reforms Commission, in their reports submitted over the years suggested changes and laid greater emphasis on the ‘aptitude’ of candidates rather than their knowledge of a subject,” said a senior official. The focus thus would be on getting the right candidate into the service rather than one who is an expert in a particular subject. And since all candidates will have to attempt common papers, the new system will weed out the best from the rest.

A systematic change

More Education news