The Union Public Service Commission has proposed significant reform in examinations to recruit civil servants. It recommends that the preliminary examination — on the basis of which a few thousand students are cleared to write the longer tests for final selection for interview — be replaced with aptitude tests. It is also keen on reducing the number of attempts each candidate is allowed, a step that could remove an extraordinary emphasis on memorisation and also address the concern that these large number of attempts take away too many productive years of a twenty-something’s career.

The format of the civil service examinations has changed over the years, and many of these changes were in response to concerns that it must open the services to ever vaster sections of Indians. If the civil services, more than any other avenue of employment, are sought to be representative and inclusive, the examination has been seen as a way of allowing the largest possible number of aspirants to prove their qualifications. So, in the early decades of independence the weightage given to the interview was decreased, to reduce a perceived advantage to middle and upper classes, and therefore more urbane candidates. The longer essays, requiring an ease with the language that comes with access to good schooling but one which can be taught with good training, were also curbed. But over the years these changes have also meant that the increased emphasis on objective questioning increased the recourse to rote — this is taxing on candidates and it is not necessarily the best way to find the best men and women for the job.

... contd.