Nothing new, but what’s the solution?

Out of 117 persons who had applied for the posts of assistant agriculture officer, 99 appeared for the computer-based recruitment test, just four made it to the second round. While four cleared the test for junior opthalmic surgeon, three made it past the exam for the librarian’s post, but no candidates cleared the CBRT for junior gynecologist, assistant professor Marathi and commercial taxes officer. 

This is not a new phenomenon. We go back two years to 2017, when the GPSC held the CBRT for the first time for junior scale officers. At that time 3,817 candidates answered the exam for 11 posts, just seven cleared the CBRT, and four passed the written exams, of which just one was selected. In a second test the same year for the same posts, 12 cleared the CBRT, 10 the written exams and six persons were selected. There are four posts of junior scale officers of the year 2017 that are yet to be filled as there were no candidates who cleared the GPSC tests. This is a trend that is continuing two years later. 

The Chairman of the Goa Public Service Commission admits that they are finding it difficult to fill various posts, because although there are candidates who meet the required qualifications, they are unable to clear the exam. Here are some important question arising out of this statement: What is the standard of the graduates in all streams that Goa produces? If the students can pass the exams conducted by the University, why do they find it difficult to make the grade in a competitive entrance test? Is it that we are merely giving degrees to students? These are questions that educationists in the State must find answers to and them give them solutions.

To further illustrate how the education system has failed the youth in the State, we need look no further than at these exams conducted by the Public Service Commission. To make it easier for the candidates, GPSC, which had started the CBRT with negative marking for wrong answers, later dropped this on the assumption that it would help candidates. Despite this relaxation, there has been no noticeable change in the percentage of candidates making the grade. That not a single candidate could make it for three posts in different departments, is shocking. These results are an indictment of the quality of education in the State. 

The education system in the State needs to be revamped so that we create an intelligent society. While we cheer when the Goa Board declares its results for the Class X and Class XII exams, and the pass percentage is in the 90s and students too score marks in the high 90s, what is the explanation for when the same students a few years later aren’t able to clear a test for employment? There is an inconsistency here that requires to be righted.  

Aside from the education aspect, the bureaucracy is an important arm of governance in the State. It has to be the government’s endeavour to recruit only the best. Never should the recruitement tests be simplified merely to increase the number of candidates who will qualify for the post. The effort has to be to make the aspirants to government jobs take the exam seriously, with the knowledge that any laxity on their part will only be detrimental to their future. The government workforce must be strictly filled by merit and not favour, for if it is the later, the administration will suffer.