Postpone prelims, govt tells UPSC

As the protest against the linguistic policies followed by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) intensified, the government on Tuesday urged the examination body to postpone the preliminary tests of the Central Civil Services Examination, which is scheduled for 24 August. ‘We are urging upon the UPSC and the committee that was constituted to look into the matter that they should consider postponing the date of the preliminary examination,’ said Jitendra Singh, union minister and minister of state for Department of Personnel and Training.

Addressing the media, he said: ‘Till there is a clarity over the syllabus and examination pattern, civil services aspirants should be given sufficient time. It is quite a legitimate demand made on their part and we are suggesting concerned authorities to consider postponement of the preliminary examination.’

The civil services aspirants under the aegis of the ABVP staged a protest on Monday outside UPSC office. They demanded that Civil Services Aptitude Tests (CSAT) should be scrapped as they put Hindi language aspirants at disadvantage. ‘In 2008, 53 per cent students appeared for civil service exam in English. While 43 per cent took the exam in Hindi. In 2011, 85 per cent students took the exam in English and only 11per cent in Hindi. The number of students taking exam in Hindi has decreased due to the structure of the paper. Especially, the rural students and students from arts and humanities background are at a disadvantage. The paper has become more technical and demands fluency in English language. Students from rural background don’t have access to such education. CSAT pattern should be scrapped,’ said Vijay Kumar Pal, a civil service aspirant. 

The CSAT 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).

While the postponement of exam may be welcomed by some students, some aspirants are worried that this will leave them with less time for preparation for the mains examination.

‘If UPSC postpones the exams, we would have hardly two or three months for mains exams, which is scheduled in December. UPSC needs to shift the mains examination date also, if it plans to postpone the preliminary exam,’ said Akriti Sagar, a civil service aspirant.