The Civil Service Commission – the Vatican of examination bodies within the country – announced the much awaited results of CSS examinations more than a fortnight ago.

The event was marked with hundreds of inflated egos (amongst those who passed) and its fair share of fragmented dreams, young men going into a quarter-life crisis, young girls lining up on the matrimonial red carpet; and thousands of others – many of whom are amongst the most academically gifted within the country – becoming disenchanted with the country and the farcical inconsistencies of its education system.

The Civil Service has defined itself as the ‘key wheels on which the entire engine of the state is supposed to move.’ Well, then, pragmatism would dictate that one brings their best wheels forward before hitting the strenuous roads of modern day political challenges faced by the country, right?

However, pragmatism, unfortunately, has not penetrated the philosophical circles of our nation.

Also read: Changing CSS exam policy

The examination has perplexed men and women from all walks of life for decades.

In the year 2014, only 439 candidates out of the 13,170 who took the written examination passed. As parsimonious as this may sound, it seemed like a welcome relief considering that a year before only 235 of 11,406 candidates managed to get to the interview stage.

For those unfamiliar with the CSS paradigm, these are not the number of students selected; it’s just the number of students who managed to get passing marks in all the subjects of the written exam.

Considering that this is the ‘crème de la crème’ of the country being selected (as one CSP officer labels it), it should not be much of a problem, right?

Newspapers often ponder on a daily basis as to why this bowl of cream is not getting the country anywhere. Our bureaucratic history forms one side of what I would like to call the 'Golden Triangle'.

Take a look: Art of inaction

This is the triangle of what are popularly referred to as institutions holding the country back since it’s inception. This should logically make us question the processes and institutions that have been involved in selecting and gilding the only set of men that always retain power (to varying degrees), whether the country is run by a Bhutto, a Sharif or their detention teachers in uniform.

Despite a series of complaints filed each year by applicants and the odd rant on the Editorials page of your favourite daily, there is no mainstream awareness of the issue to lead toward practical initiatives and actual reform.

Whatever little that finds it’s way into newspaper columns is ignored by the Civil Service Commission, much in the same way as any other form of institutional power in the country.

Just how bad is the system?
This is a system where Harvard, Columbia and Melbourne University graduates, as well as accomplished writers for English-language newspapers, fail in ‘English grammar’ on an yearly basis while people who find it hard to differentiate between the use of ‘a’ and ‘an’ can weasel through unnoticed. Those capable enough to pass are often side-jerked in the dreaded English essay paper.

Also read: Plagiarism detected in CSS paper

I have asked at least a handful of English-language journalists who flunked the English test, on more than one occasion as to the actual method required for passing it.

The answer usually floats between prayers, luck and the specific examiner and his mood on that particular day. If you have ever encountered more than your share of CSP officers, you would come across people incapable of formulating three English sentences without a grammatical error.

If there is any method to the madness, than rote learning may be it. It seems to be the least unsuccessful scalpel of choice for acing the CSS examination (along with luck and countless recitation of particular Surahs) for many decades now.

Explore: From kindergarten to CSS: The 'cram to pass' model abounds

Dates, anecdotes and equatorial distances that become worthless and forgotten after a few decades are tons more important than analytical prowess and reasoning.

Whereas education systems in the West are emphasising the importance of creativity and intuitive problem solving, the CSS examination would probably be more obsessed with how many Danish crème biscuits Iqbal ate at the round table conference.

Somebody examine the examiner, please
The Civil Service Commission cannot be entirely blamed, however; the colonised conditioning left behind 67 years ago is still pervasive in our society – we think the system of education and selection inherited by us from our masters still holds true today.

I am anticipating many counterarguments to this, highlighting the article's 'prejudice' towards people born Pakistani or bred in Pakistani schools, but the point I wish to raise is that of merit.

I am one of thousands of Pakistanis who refuse to acknowledge the merits of an examination that has, on average, eight to 10 grammatical and semantic inconsistencies in a single question paper. It is difficult not to ponder over the strengths of the assessors when the questions themselves have the grammatical and semantic coherence of an eight grader’s homework assignment:

"Which radio station existed at the time of Pakistan?"
"Who drafted the Wardha scheme under the guidance of Ghandi?"

—(General Knowledge, Paper III, 2009)

Never, in any form of literature, will you see Gandhi spelled as such, and good luck wondering about the credentials of the person who helped frame the time of Pakistan.

Also see: Typo in CSS paper

If disenchanting the youth of the country and sending the most talented lot out of it with such a flawed system is what we aim to do, then be happy – we are doing it at an unprecedented rate.

We have to ask ourselves: why have we fallen behind in education, scientific reasoning, research and endeavours?

Do we really need crammers, or do we instead need intuitive and analytically inclined decision makers, capable of understanding the nuances of language, thought and debate?

Think.

I'm in absolute agreement with the author. I've personally seen so many CSS toppers whose English (written) is like that of a 10-year old. They have a lot of grammatical, vocabulary and punctuation mistakes; and then people like me scratch their head in wonder.

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[Malang Bear]

There are numerous 'valid' points mentioned in the article in relation to the quality of CSS exam. However, as a matter of fact, FPSC has recently decided to demotivate crammers and make the exams 'really competitive'. The change in the essay topics and the shift from mere 'ratta' to the questions demanding analytical reasoning capabilities is a true depiction of the fact that FPSC also realizes the shortcomings in their own exam system. However, the marking scheme needs to be revisited. If the candidates are failed because of the consequent interview complexities (for making process shorter), then it is really a big issue. The introduction of screening test can tackle this issue quite well. I have witnessed that a majority of highly talented individuals (who are professional writers) fail the essay exam.

However, it is also true that not all the selected candidates do not deserve the merit places. A lot of talented individuals, with a strong academic background, do possess the skills to pass the exam and they eventually do. But the system of marking should be more transparent and it should be streamlined.

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The one who is most deserving of thanks and praise from people is Allah

At the time when I started considering taking the CSS exam, I was confident that English language papers would be of the least concern to me. However, ever since, I have been hearing from people I meet that many candidates having a strong command of the language, failed the exam.

On this forum, I checked the marks posted by candidates, from previous years, of their attempts of the English essay and precis papers. A majority of posters had very low marks, which led me to assess the past papers. Having seen them, I again felt confident that I should be able to pass them, as they did not appear to be questions requiring any kind of knowledge from rote learning. But yet again, I have become concerned after reading such articles. I am wondering if the examiner who will check my English papers will be marking purely based on his/her own judgement, or will he/she be marking based on a specific marking scheme which has been decided in consultation with all other examiners of English language portion of the CSS exams? Consistency in marking is very important in any examination; as otherwise it would be an unfair exam system.

Nevertheless, I also do understand that ultimately, marking of language exams is subjective to some degree. Perhaps in the CSS language papers, it is not enough to merely use a wide vocabulary; one must also demonstrate proper grammar, critical thinking, memory recall ability.

I will InshAllah appear in 2015. One thing I am sure of: I will take the preparation of the English essay and precis papers very, very seriously.

Dil ki bharaas! Professional writers have so much time to write, have at their disposal spell check, google and what not. Writing under pressure and time constraint and no help is a different ball game. And the article is full of lame assumptions and implications like public servants are the single cause of what's not taking this country ahead and that is because the exam has so many spelling mistakes! I don't remember cramming Surahs and dates for the exam. And looking at who have passed the exam including Artemis, Gypsified etc. Yeah these people can't write a sentence without making grammar mistakes

P.S. In essay they check your organization and argumentation skills instead of just crammed English regardless of what the author has suggested.

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He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow (Ecclesiastes 1:18)

Yeah that's how the system works only cream gets through such exam because vacancies are scarce. Remember the rule of scarcity?


No this exam has enriched aspirants despite the outcome


Justified because vacancies are not more than 200

If you want result from talented bureaucrats then set them free dont make them puppets of ill educated politicians

As a matter of fact no concrete plan to reform civil service has been offered yet. Editorials and columns build castles in the air. Despite this FPSC is only body in this country which is free of corruption

Haha. Don't know about the calibre of foreign graduates but havnt met a CSP who cannot differentiate between a and an

Luck plays it's limited role in every sphere of life so CSS must not be an exception

One can still get through without cramming. However its proven fact that bit of rote learning does enhance analytical skills.Moreover asking about the biscuts of Iqbal will unleash how much in depth student has actually studied