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Frightening

B. S. Raghavan

ABOUT 50,000 candidates on an average, write the competitive examinations for higher civil services (deputy collectors, deputy superintendents of police, district registrars, assistant registrars of cooperative societies, judicial officers and the like) in every State. Of them, roughly 500 are shortlisted for being interviewed by the State Civil Service Commissions. The presumption these facts raise is that the candidates appearing for the interview represent the best that the educational institutions in the country produce.

But most old time civil servants and public persons who are coopted to sit on the selection boards, find the experience frightening. Just a few true stories: A post-graduate with ML degree is asked to complete the adage ``Justice delayed is...'' He blank ly stares at the wall in front of him. Another ML with 82 per cent marks in law, asked to mention the writs for which a citizen can move the High Courts or the Supreme Court, quickly admits his ignorance.

A third with an M.Com. degree is asked to say a few words about Vivekananda, and after a long silence, asks whether he is a freedom fighter. When gently reminded that it is not for him to ask questions, but to answer those of the members of the board, as serts that Vivekananda was a freedom fighter, and reveals that he marched with Mahatma Gandhi to Dandi. A post-graduate in English Literature cannot mention the names of Lake Poets.

When this is the case with simple questions which a Matriculate of the period up to the 1960s would have answered in a jiffy, it is not hard to imagine why some of the present-day candidates throw up their hands when asked to compare the presidential wit h parliamentary system, or the old economy with the new economy and to explain what they understand by knowledge workers.

(It is quite another matter that those same old-timers on the interview boards are often distressed by the poor showing of some of the chairpersons and members of the public service commissions themselves.)

Obviously the commissions will have to make do with what they get. Thus, many substandard, if not downright dumb and dim, candidates get selected under various caste and community quotas, and these, then fill posts of high responsibility in various depar tments. Is it not horrifying to think of them as magistrates (climbing up the judicial ladder), doctors and public officials deciding the fate of ordinary citizens?

The entire blame for the appalling fall in standards we see everywhere has necessarily, to be laid at the doors of educational institutions and those responsible for their management. Outdated syllabi and curricula, poor quality of teaching and teachers, failure to enforce the conditions of recognition/affiliation and lack of inspection and supervision are among the more serious factors because of which, it is becoming increasingly difficult to take even an ordinary degree on trust, leave alone professi onal or doctoral qualifications.

The situation cries out for a root-and-branch reform of the educational system based on the recommendations of a newly appointed Education Commission. The nation will have to pay dearly for any dragging of feet on this vital matter bearing on the quality of its human resource.