Text Size: A- A+

New Delhi: The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) has urged the Modi government to do away with the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) and replace the interview with a psychological test, along the lines of one held by the Army, for the Civil Services Examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

The Sangh claims that the CSAT disadvantages those who write the exam in Hindi and alleges that the interviews are not uniform.

Doing away with both is among the suggestions that a committee formed by the RSS on competitive exams has given to the government during a deliberation that took place in the national capital over the weekend.

The event was attended by important stakeholders from the service commissions and members of the UPSC and the government. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, along with other senior functionaries of the organisation, was a part of the event.

“We work on the philosophy that the exam pattern should be reformed in such way that it provides equal opportunities to people and there should be no discrimination,” said Devendra Singh, national convener, competitive exams, for the RSS affiliated Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas.

“We have been working on improving the competitive exam pattern for the last five years now. Currently, exams are conducted in a way that they do not cater to the specific requirements of the job,” he added.

The RSS stance on CSAT is in line with what the UPSC has been proposing. In a letter to the central government earlier this year, the UPSC had also recommended doing away with the controversial auxiliary exam.

‘Hindi medium aspirants at a disadvantage’

According to the RSS, 90 per cent of those who qualify the CSAT are from an English medium background and so it does not do justice as a qualifying exam.

“We want the government to do away with CSAT because it is not really needed as a qualifying examination. It does not test the relevant skills of a person who is aspiring to be a serving officer in the government,” Singh said.

“Also, 90 per cent of those who qualify from the exam are from English medium backgrounds. People who write the exam in Hindi are left out because of CSAT.”

Meant to test a candidate’s comprehension, communication and decision-making skills, the CSAT was introduced by the government in 2011.

In the face of massive protests against the exam, however, the government made it ‘qualifying’ in nature in 2015. Now, a candidate is only required to secure 33 per cent marks in the paper to qualify for the next level.

Yet, several candidates who appeared for the exam between 2011 and 2015 are demanding compensatory attempts from the government since they believe they were put at a disadvantage.

While the government has remained mute on the demand for compensatory attempts, the UPSC too is of the view that the CSAT does not add much value to the evaluation of a candidate to be a civil servant. In June this year, it had proposed that the government do away with it.

“We are not in a position to comment on what the RSS has proposed but the commission is of the view that the CSAT does not serve a purpose in selecting candidates,” a UPSC official said on condition of anonymity.

“That is why we had written to the government earlier on this issue…We have seen that students who perform well in Paper I invariably perform well in Paper II as well, and in that sense students just end up wasting time preparing for it.”

The RSS has suggested that UPSC follow the pattern of the Rajasthan State Exam Prelims, which is a question paper of 150 marks that includes all subjects.

Interview should be standardised

The RSS has also alleged that there is no uniformity in the interview pattern and that candidates are affected by the panel that grills them.

“Our research and deliberation made us realise that non-uniformity in the interview process is one of the main reasons that candidates are left out in an exam,” Singh said.

“Some panels are liberal and they give easy marks, while some other panels are strict and mark people abysmally. Ultimately, the future of a candidate depends upon the kind of panel he is interviewed by, which is extremely unfair. There should be a uniform criterion for interview,” he added.

“One of the suggestions to make the interview process standardised is by training and mentoring those who are taking the interviews and telling them the purpose and objective behind it.”

Singh also said that the group suggested to the government that the interview should be replaced with a psychological test on the lines of the one conducted by the Army.

The UPSC official quoted above, however, said that the interview is known to be “one of the fairest in the country”.

“There have never been any complaints of bias by the commission in its decades-long history,” the official said. “Of course, if there are legitimate proposals to make the system even more thorough, the commission would be open to them.”

A civil servant ThePrint spoke to agreed. “The interview process is already highly standardised…There is a panel of five, and you are informed of who is on the panel only an hour before the interview,” he said. “If there is some bias, it is inevitable because ultimately it is an interview…Some degree of subjectivity is only natural.”

UPSC should provide answer keys

Another suggestion that the Sangh has given to the government is providing answer keys for the preliminary exams immediately. UPSC, at present, provides answer keys but after the results are declared; the RSS wants the commission to release the answer keys immediately.

“We want the commission to release answer keys immediately so that students can challenge them if they want to. Releasing it after a year makes no sense,” Singh said.

A senior official from the UPSC explained that the commission only releases information pertaining to the exam once the whole process is completed.

“We release all the answers and other information only once the final candidates are selected by the commission so that the selection process is not hampered,” the official explained. “Otherwise there would be all kinds of challenges etc in the middle of the selection process, and we would never be able to complete the process.”

Also read: Corruption is like ‘termites’ — PM Modi justifies tough approach against civil servants

The copy has been updated to correctly reflect the RSS’s suggestions with regard to the UPSC providing answer keys.

Subscribe to our channels on YouTube & Telegram

Why news media is in crisis & How you can fix it You are reading this because you value good, intelligent and objective journalism. We thank you for your time and your trust. You also know that the news media is facing an unprecedented crisis. It is likely that you are also hearing of the brutal layoffs and pay-cuts hitting the industry. There are many reasons why the media’s economics is broken. But a big one is that good people are not yet paying enough for good journalism. We have a newsroom filled with talented young reporters. We also have the country’s most robust editing and fact-checking team, finest news photographers and video professionals. We are building India’s most ambitious and energetic news platform. And have just turned three. At ThePrint, we invest in quality journalists. We pay them fairly. As you may have noticed, we do not flinch from spending whatever it takes to make sure our reporters reach where the story is. This comes with a sizable cost. For us to continue bringing quality journalism, we need readers like you to pay for it. If you think we deserve your support, do join us in this endeavour to strengthen fair, free, courageous and questioning journalism. Please click on the link below. Your support will define ThePrint’s future. Support Our Journalism

Show Full Article