PPSC - Facts As I See Them

This is regarding the civil services exam conducted by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) for the recruitment of higher bureaucracy for the states. The process of the exam started in November 2009 and ended in June 2012 (more than 2 years). It must be noted that exactly similar type of exam is conducted by UPSC for All India Services and Allied services which gets completed in one year. It must also be noted that the PPSC chose to conduct the exam after long 9 years. The last one was full of discrepancies and it had to be re-conducted because the chairman was alleged to have been involved in corruption.

For those who don’t know about the exam pattern. It has 3 stages – preliminary, main and interview. Preliminary exam is an objective type exam where the candidate has to select one option from among 4 or 5. Those who qualify Preliminary appear for Main, which is a subjective exam, the candidate has to write essay type answers reflecting his opinion about the topic asked in the question. In the interview, the candidate is assessed for his personality traits (as it is stated in the brochure) and if he is suitable, he is given marks accordingly. The marks of Main and Interview are then added together to prepare the merit list.

Immediately after the main exam results were declared, many of the aspirants were shocked to find that in order to be eligible for DSP (Deputy Superintendent of Police), one has to pass through the following test:

And the candidates were given around a week to prepare for the same. The surprising part is that there was no mention (in detail) of such test in the brochure and the commission could not even upload on the website the same in the more than two years it took to conduct the exam. The motive was clearly to give advantage to a select few because some of the people (as told to me by my friends – no evidence here) knew about the test and had started preparing for the same much earlier. The outcome was as expected – only a handful of candidates were successful.

It must be noted that policing today is more of a mental exercise where officers need to have a mindset where they are sensitive, honest and efficient. But PPSC thought physical ability is more important than mental ability. In this context, it must be noted that an IPS officer selected via UPSC also joins the same/similar post – DSP or ASP but there is no such test there. Officers are given training after they join the training. Therefore, physical ability is secondary to mental make up. When right thinking people are craving for police reforms, I hope this issue also holds importance.

In the main exam, there were problems in some question papers (especially Commerce paper as told to me by Commerce students). Students could not solve some questions with the data given in the question itself. That meant that questions were set by substandard teachers and if not then surely they were not proof-read. This shows how seriously the whole process was taken by the commission.

When the results of the main exam came, some of the subjects – Botany, Zoology - had got 90% marks whereas others could not even touch 70%. These 20 marks made a lot of difference in the merit. No doubt the topper had such subjects. Again this reflects the pathetic and substandard evaluation done by the teachers who may not be well- verse with their subjects. This is quite a common part of our education system where teachers don’t know their subjects but have high degress – Phds or so.

Then a lot of discretion was put to use in the interview stage. Interview comprised 100 marks and it is here that many of the candidates were asked tough questions so that they could not say later that their interview went good but still got less marks. Again, no doubt some people got extremely less marks (around 40%) and some selected few went up till 70 – 80%. One can imagine the difference all this can make in the final merit and that too when the competition is cut-throat.

And one thing more to be added. All this is quite common in other State Public Service Commissions. The members of the commission are selected majorly by way of political contacts (no merit here even though they are supposed to uphold merit in selecting the bureaucracy).

You must have wondered as to why courts did not step in. Infact, there were litigations but it is not surprising to see that courts have often floundered in providing justice (though I still believe that Army and Judiciary are the only two institutions which have some respect left in them. Others have collapsed and degraded).

If these things continue, I am sure the so called ‘Demographic Dividend’ is bound to degenerate into ‘Demographic Nightmare’. 

Refer - http://ppsc.gov.in/