Issue: Maximum Freedom to Choose Language
Maximum Freedom to Choose Language
Intro: Union government has come under pressure of students protesting against CSAT. The Government will decide on the basis of committee report.
The Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT), a compulsory part of Civil Services Examination that acts as a screening test conducted annually by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) of India for Civil Services aspirants. CSAT was introduced in 2011 based on the recommendations of the UPA Government. The government appointed Prof. S K Khanna committee to revise the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination syllabus and 2014 exam will be its 4th occurrence. After the introduction of CSAT in 2011, there has been a huge cry all over the nation by the students of other languages that this will favour English speaking students.
From the past one month there has been protest all over the country by the Civil Services aspirants asking to remove CSAT. Students who are protesting claimed CSAT syllabus favour students of Science Background especially engineering students. According to students, CSAT is hindering the regional and Hindi language students from getting selected.
Of the 121 crore total population of India 83.3 crore live in rural areas. They study in Hindi medium schools and colleges. So, it is totally unfair to make English as basic language. One of the disastrous things done is the use of Google Translator to translate CSAT questions from English to Hindi. In a recent statement, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said, “The UPSC issue will be resolved within a week. Discussions are going on.” This statement will surely bring a hope for the UPSC students who are fighting for their rights. The three-member government-appointed committee, which is looking into the demands of the aspirants.
Anand Kumar, a Civil Services aspirant told to Organiser, the media is not aware of the facts that what exactly UPSC aspirants want. They are talking about 8 questions on English comprehension among the total 80 questions asked in General Studies Paper II. The actual problem is the whole Paper II, as it is difficult for students coming from rural areas.
“The main issue is of the language used in Hindi version of questions is tough and at times not accurate.” Once you look at the selection process you can easily find that all the things favouring elite groups, there is nothing for the student from rural areas who has done his studies either in Hindi language or regional language. This is a fight between elite and poor, he added.
UPSC admit cards are out but, according to the sources the government is of the view that the UPSC preliminary examination dates should be postponed if the pattern is changed.
In a recent development Arvind Verma Committee has submitted its report to the government. Union Minister Jitendra Singh assured a positive decision and urged the protesting students to stay calm.
As UPSC is an autonomous body which looks into the whole conduction of exam, final decision will be taken by the commission itself. – Nishant Kumar Azad
Intro: A letter written by Prof SN Singh to Saurabh Jain, IAS, and copy of the same sent to PM Narendra Modi, underlines the need to focus on training rather than selection.
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The training process of selected candidates has been deteriorating day by day. The motive of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration Campus, Mussorie is to take their young officers, as a part of their training, to villages and make them familiar with the village level situation. But unfortunately a few of them neither visit the concerned villages nor consult the village level census data and other official data. Later they get the data very easily from the District level offices during their training and submit it. After these reports have been sent to the academicians like or to retired IAS officer with academic credentials those who are working in this field, to compile and write the state report. There are three cases of three contiguous years trainees and here in place of their names referring to them as A, B and C. IAS trainee 'A' of 2005 batch submitted a study report of village Shorti located in Manoharthana Block of Jhalawar district. After one year IAS trainee 'B' of 2006 batch submitted his report as part of village study of the village-Ratlai, Block Bakani of Jhalawar district. In his report he has just changed the name of the village, its population figure and narrated everything in the same manner word for word, as his senior trainee had submitted in 2005. Trainee 'C' of 2007 copied the whole report and followed the pattern of B’s report and merely changed the name of the village, the village population figure, names of the poorest of the poor and submitted the report as a part of fulfilling the training requirement.
