The picture of illiteracy in our country, as noted by UNESCO and the Federal Education Ministry of Pakistan, has been grim. Although successive governments have announced various programmes to promote literacy, especially among women, they have been unable to translate their words into action because of various political, social and cultural obstacles.
The situation is the most critical in KP and Balochistan, where the female literacy rate stands between 3 percent and 8 per cent. Poverty is also a big hurdle in girls’ education. According to UNICEF, 17.6 percent of Pakistani children and more than 50 percent of its adolescents are working and supporting their families. Indeed, children working as domestic help is a common phenomenon in Pakistan, and this sector employs more girls than boys.
Those middle and lower class students who against all odds in a Pakistani society succeed to acquire education and still higher education are then denied to take the leading Civil Services Exam if they fall out of the oppressive age bracket set by the federal government.
That is an injustice of the utmost degree. On one hand we have desperately low literacy rate and on the other the educated competent lot are barred from taking a competitive exam. This is indeed the conscious murder of talent.
I request the President, Prime Minister and Chairman FPSC to enhance the CSS age limit up to 33 years for the open merit so that the prevailing despair in the aspiring competent candidates could be arrested in time.
SAJJAD MENGAL
Quetta
(II)
The Central Superior Services exam is the gateway to the bureaucracy. It is conducted on yearly basis to select the most competent individuals for the highly responsible jobs in the administration of the state.
Unfortunately in Pakistan, competitive exams have lost their charm and impact due to negligence on the part of the government coupled with other system flaws and rampant nepotism, elitism and intellectual corruption.
Since the inception of Pakistan, self-centred rulers, expedient politicians and political elites have tried their level best to keep the reins of authority in their own hands. A weak bureaucracy means a weaker democracy which paves the way for dictatorship, which in return leaves no stone unturned to further weaken the bureaucratic sphere of influence.
The prescribed 28 years age limit for open merit students in the CSS exam is just not fair in a third world country like Pakistan where it takes more time for the Urdu-medium students to come at par and compete with the students who attended English-medium schools.
Poverty further plays its pugnacious role when a student from a hand-to-mouth background, after using our poor public transport for almost 14 years of one’s life and completing one’s graduation, has to go out in search of a job, standing in long queues to make two ends meet for few years before preparing to compete at a national level in the CSS exam.
CSS is basically a competitive exam, but the reduced age limit is sticking out like a sore thumb on its face. It must be treated with a flexible age policy, so that more people get a chance to take the exam in the hope of playing a part in the administrative affairs of their country. I request the President, Prime Minister, and Chairman FPSC to extend the CSS age limit up to 33 years for all and sundry.
KAMRAN KHAN GHOURI
Lahore