Daily Times

Civil Service in general and quality of civil servants in particular comes under discussion in media every year after the declaration of Central Superior Services (CSS) examination results. The discussion is mostly about the dismal rate at which candidates clear the CSS examination. Media pundits are often led to link the low rate of success to the sorry state of educational affairs in the country. Speakers on talk shows lament the neglect of education, a couple of op-ed pieces appear, and soon the subject goes off the radar. The same trend was on display over the last couple of weeks.

Framing an issue with the right approach is the key to finding a viable solution.

Low percentage of CSS qualifiers is not the real problem. In all competitive examinations conducted at national or international levels, only a small percentage is able to pass all stages. In 2014, 950,000 candidates registered for Indian Civil Service examination, of which 450,000 actually sat the exam. Only 15,000 cleared the preliminary exam and 1,200 were finally selected, which makes the pass percentage 0.26 percent. In France, less than a hundred people are selected every year for civil service jobs.

Quality of civil servants selected demands a careful and thoroughgoing analysis. Indubitably, the productivity of civil servants has considerably gone down over the last four decades. And any future roadmap for national development is doomed in its tracks without reforming bureaucracy. Our political elite have been disinclined to consider serious reform process. They prefer to tweak with the procedures and introduce small changes here and there, which have proven ineffective to address the deeper malaise.

Civil service examinations are conducted across the world to select people to run the administration. Examinations provide a useful means to filter the candidates who do not possess the basic analytical abilities. The content of examination determines its relevance to the selection of most suitable candidates for jobs. To select the brightest candidates, it must be a competitive, rigorous and meritocratic process. Sadly, the present CSS examination structure does not come up to those standards. The questions asked do not require imaginative solutions, and instead are designed to encourage candidates to memorise stuff without developing an understanding. The predictability of exam questions has facilitated the proliferation of coaching centres. Unfortunately, these coaching places do not give any attention to the development of cognitive analytical skills and merely prepare students for a particular set of questions to pass an exam.

Civil service in France is famous for selecting the cream of the nation to lead in administration, business and politics. Their selection process is extremely rigorous and by all means separates off the best and the brightest from the rest. The candidates sit five written exams (Public Law, Finance, European Law, Social Policy, and Mathematics), followed by four oral exams (Public Finance, International Relations, European Politics, and General Knowledge), and a 45-minute Grand Oral. Candidates who pass these three stages are put through a sports fitness test. Those selected are guaranteed jobs in the civil service and are imparted training for two years at L’École Nationale d’administration (ENA) — a prestigious institute launched by Charles de Gaulle in 1945.

The most recent CSS exam reform effort in Pakistan made the following changes: one, age limit has been increased by two years for all categories; two, the minimum qualification to sit the exam has been enhanced to sixteen years of education; three, a couple of new subjects — Urban Planning and Criminology — have been introduced; four, the weightage of certain subjects has been increased and decreased for others. A single thread runs through these changes: lack of imagination. Any reform process must define the need to undertake the reform, the objectives to be achieved and the relation of adopted measures to the objectives. Every component of the process was overlooked and big, half-page advertisements in press about civil service reforms have resulted in mere tinkering and most unimaginative steps.

The CSS quota is misused by people who get domiciles of smaller provinces though they have access to education and other services at par with any other candidate

Commentators often make a mistake ascribing the quality of the civil servants to the deteriorating standards of education. They overlook the fact that civil service is not able to attract the best talent available in Pakistan, partly due to the abovementioned examination structure but mainly due to lack of incentive. And the decision-makers have very conveniently put this factor aside. They need to learn from other countries, which have an efficient bureaucracy. In Singapore, the first and most important step undertaken to stop the brain drain into private sector was to offer competitive, market-based salaries to civil servants. The brightest candidates are chosen from schools, awarded government scholarships to study at prestigious institutions in Singapore, followed by scholarships to study abroad at world-class universities. They are bound to return back to the country and join the civil service. Further, they are allowed to continue in one ministry for a sufficiently long period of time to enable development of expertise.

Lastly, our CSS exam process is also not meritocratic because of existence of quotas for geographic regions and for armed forces. Reservation of posts is primarily aimed to give the disadvantaged sections of society a deserving leg-up for a temporary period of time. Quota for armed forces cannot be justified as an affirmative action. Further, at the time of induction of armed forces’ officers in civil service, their respective institutions have already invested huge resources on their training and capacity building. Likewise, geographical quota is never supposed to continue forever. But the quota for disadvantaged regions due to end in 1993 has continually been extended since thereafter. Moreover, the quota is misused by people who get domiciles of smaller provinces though they have access to education and other services at par with any other candidate throughout their life. These distortions allow less capable people to enter and hence impact the efficiency of civil service.

The writer is a Rhodes Scholar. He currently works in Civil Service of Pakistan. He can be reached at naumanlawyer@gmail.com