Daily Times

“Preparing for CSS exam” is the new jargon used by every unemployed Tom, Dick, and Hary in Pakistan. Qualifiers come-up with their success stories and are raved in the intellectual society because of their phenomenal win in the exam.

Unfortunately, those who fail, either blame FPSC for favoritism or are blamed, again by the same society of intellectuals, for their incompetence, which devastates them to death, either by committing suicide or becoming victims to an inferiority complex.

In particular, this article intends to spill the beans, which reveals the untold story that was never disclosed by any of the students because of unseen pressure and fear he could face if he ever spoke. Undoubtedly, the CSS exam has been exhibited extraordinarily tough, and most of those, who crack it, showcase it as if it is rocket science.I am to cater to specific areas that every aspirant must know and be cautious about his decisions whenever he/she plans to appear in the prestigious exam. As a sad state of affairs, Pakistan has been surrounded by the evil of mafias. It ranges from corruption to hoarders and what not. CSS, being no exception, has also become a source of business of mafia intended to loot the youngsters. The grim discovery is that no proper guidance is available for the preparation of Competitive exams anywhere in Pakistan, even though it is being conducted over the last five to six decades. Let us fit in the picture to see how it goes.

21st century is known to be an age of digital revolution, and times have proven its need and benefits. In today’s world, when a CSS aspirant images to go for the exam, he searches on for guidance over the internet. One sees galaxies of marketing campaigns by very prestigious institutes misguiding billions of young people and making a profit out of it.
The unfortunate situation is every other CSS starred institute glamorizes with 100s of success stories of their alumni. However, no one ever thinks why the competitive exam result remained below four percent ever since it started.

Not all, but most CSPs are found, backing this business by joining in those academies as the faculty members. The question must have arisen in millions of minds how could a person who himself was not sure of passing the exam, come and deliver the lectures with guaranteed tips of passing the exam. In the recent final result of 2019, the melancholy is where 60% of the candidates passed their essay, a turning point for a CSS aspirant, at the bottom line of 40 marks, and have started coaching their juniors.

Most of the academies and publishers have come out with CSS-oriented books, and every aspirant buys it blindly without checking in the authenticity of the content. Shockingly, these mafias are audacious enough to grab and fetch all the material, whether relevant or inept from Wikipedia and numerous other sites, and publish it with their names shamelessly. Readers are requested to take any book from CSS known publication, type it on google, and it will make you land on the origin of the content from where it was taken and published to that book.

Moreover, when an aspirant contacts any academy/ institute for admission, they will deal with you as if you are their family member and of utter importance. Once you are successfully befooled and are unveiled about the grim realities, and you dare to question, you will be ignored as an adopted child. Unfortunately, despite being faced with such attitudes, none of the students dares to come up and share his story to save millions like him, instead becomes a goof.

It has been observed time and again that whenever a vacant position, by FPSC, SPSC, PPSC, KPPSC, BPSC FIA, and NAB, is announced, the whole publisher and academy gang comes out of it burrows. It starts programs for one–paper preparation publishes internet material in the form of a book at pricier rates and gives inept guidance.

In a TV interview, a well-known personality shared statistics that in Pakistan, approximately 57 lac graduated individuals remain unemployed and become victims of this mafia. It breaks my heart to see millions of students still blindly follow these tactics instead of doing their proper research and waste thousands of hard-earned bucks to such people. Nothing mentioned here is being talked without any reason, I ,myself, have been badly trapped in this vicious cycle of looters. I earned for 4 years and saved every single penny to afford fee to acquire quality guidance. I have spent , rather wasted, a hefty amount to these institutes with a hope, I will flourish in this field. Instead it shattered my motivation to zero that I gave up on the idea of attempting CSS exam. Now, I am at a point where there seems no way to get back, as I wasted almost 2 precious years of life at the hands of such institutes and spent all my savings which has made me leave no choice, but to wait for some more time, save more money, and invest in pursuing my degree in my field of education.

Conclusively, Lack of critical analysis of aspirants has pushed them towards increased dependence of these institutes and CSPs to make it to CSA. I hope it was enough to unveil the grim realities, and I know millions have stories like that. You are all encouraged to write about it so that our youth treads the right path, and some quality is considered in their pedagogical practices, which will not only increase the intellectual level of these young minds but also bring some better results in the most competitive exam of Pakistan. Every year, the result analysis remains in the limelight. Despite stream of strong words, nothing concrete has been done as of yet to save millions of aspirants.

(Author, a post graduate and freelance writer who wants to bring change in society , working for the youth development and women empowerment. Writer may be contacted via Twitter @amreen_mir1)