[Tenzin Yangchen]
In the past few months, a lot has been said and written about the recent fiasco in the conduct of competitive recruitment exams, especially by the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC). Over the last many years, most of the exams conducted by the APPSC were shrouded in controversy and allegation of either malpractice or mismanagement. The warning signs were evident and obvious, but still the commission did not pay much heed or seriousness which was required to ensure fair conduct of the exams.
There were multiple flaws with the existing system. The main culprit in the recent AE exam debacle, APPSC deputy secretary Taket Jerang, has been in the same position for many years. When a person remains in one position for a very long time, he becomes well-versed with the system in place and thus becomes capable of flouting all the security measure in place. Hence, it is important that internal staff shuffle is done on a periodic basis, so that no one becomes an overload, be it a babu or an officer, just because of their familiarity with the system.
Another important concern is, if the paper has been leaked by the person/institution responsible for setting the paper, how will the commission ensure that it does not happen when the person is a third party and constant monitoring is humanly not possible?
Recruitment today is not a simple process. As the number of aspirants is growing and the jobs available, especially in the government sector, are shrinking, the competition is becoming fierce. There is no room for leniency by the commission as it is the matter of the future of many youngsters who are unleashed into the job market every year and each being more smart, intelligent and competent than the other.
It won’t be an exaggeration to say that the competition is cut-throat. When the job and candidate ratio is highly skewed, how do we ascertain the selection of the best of the best in a fair manner?
I believe that, apart from the aptitude, the attitude of the candidate should also be given, if not equal, due weightage. Traits like sincerity, diligence, dedication and hard work should be given due recognition and importance. How can that be ascertained? There is a need for an overhaul in the pattern and system of exam, especially in case of combined competitive civil service examination.
The first step towards a career may not necessarily be filling up the form for recruitment examination; rather, it is the orientation or disposition of the candidate right from the school and college days. A prospective sportsman is groomed right from childhood. Then why can’t it be applicable to civil servants when the responsibility of the development of the state and the nation lies on their shoulders? To ensure these, the academic performance of candidate, reflected through their grades in college, should have some weightage in the evaluation system of the competitive exam.
I know this is a drastic step and many might argue that the student studying in public schools would be put at a disadvantage. I don’t say that it needs to be implemented immediately, but can be done in a phased manner. Say, the announcement can be made now, and it can be implemented over the next 3-4 years, so that the students who are currently in college will get the opportunity to acclimatise and prepare accordingly.
I believe this will also motivate the students to perform better academically, right from school and college days. This will also inculcate the qualities and virtue of sincerity, hard work, prudence, and diligence, right from early school and college days. The virtues acquired during the growing days normally tend to last forever with a person. Success cannot be achieved by working hard for a short period of time. A person who wants to be in good health cannot be healthy by adopting healthy diet and lifestyle just for a day or two.
What is needed is consistency and sustainability in effort and hard work. And the student or candidate who has lived a disciplined and prudent life by making right choices consistently as a student, which is reflected to a great degree in his grades, should get merit in the latter stage of life. No matter whether the student lands a job in the government sector or not, these qualities, built over the time from early days, will help the student to have a better future and career and also become a better human being. By making these changes in competitive exams, we are not only improving the quality of recruitment process but also building a system of education which will instil strong moral and intellectual qualities among the youngsters of the coming generation.
Further, it will reduce the over-reliance on the competitive written exam, the fairness of which is difficult to ensure as multiple stages and players are involved in the conduct of exams. In my opinion, 20 percent of the weightage should be given to the higher secondary and graduation grades combined. The mains exam may be given 50 percent of the weightage and remaining 15 percent to group discussion and 15 percent to interview.
Why I feel group discussion is important is that, many a time, the marks scored by a candidate in the interview are also questioned. In the current state of affairs, we can never be assured that the interview panel is completely fair and just. And the closed-door interview leaves so much in the hands of the panel alone. Having a group discussion will let the candidates measure each other as to how they performed during the group discussion. The moment a person opens his mouth, he gives away so much about himself. The candidates will not only be evaluated by a panel but peer evaluation will also happen simultaneously, and there will be no room for any misdemeanour, even at the panel level.
Also, the performance of a person in group discussion will throw light on his/her personality traits like inter-personal management, courage, patience, endurance, and eloquence. This system to a great extent will make the exam foolproof and free from corruption. It will also give the education system an impetus to perform better, especially the public schools and colleges, because now the stakes will be much higher than ever before.
For the people who say it is not fair for those who did not do well in schools and colleges, my only argument to them is, they must strive hard in the written part. Success does not come from what we do occasionally; it comes from what we do consistently. A person of high values and integrity is not built in a day. It needs consistent adherence to discipline, self-control and hard work, and someone who has done it right from his childhood days should be rewarded.
A long-term plan with a vision is what is needed in our state to cleanse our system and society where corruption is not an exception but the norm. There is a lot of hue and cry about corruption in recruitment, but what about the other departments where corruption is rampant right from the lower level to the topmost echelons? After all, the people in the recruiting agency are people from our same society. How can they not be tempted when they live and breathe among corruption every single day?
The need of the hour is not ghost hunting and knee-jerk reaction to placate the angry and disgruntled public, but to build a system which is resilient to corruption and all other kind of malpractices. (Tenzin Yangchen is an APCS 2016 batch officer. The opinions expressed are the writer’s, and not necessarily of this daily.)
