While the government is making efforts for uplifting the country’s education system, the Central Superior Services (CSS) competitive exam’s written part was cleared by a mere 2.56 per cent of the students who took the exam.
According to the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC), a total of 23,403 candidates had applied for the CSS competitive examination 2019. Of them, 14,521 appeared for the written part of the exam; however, only 372 were able to obtain passing marks.
The FPSC notified that the candidates who had passed the written exam would be intimated the schedule of the medical examination, the psychological assessment and the viva voce (oral exam) on dates that would be notified soon.
In comparison, 567 (4.77 per cent) of the 11,887 candidates who appeared for the exam last year had passed. The number of candidates who had cleared the written exam was 569 but two of them were unable to clear the viva voce. Of those who had cleared the CSS exam, 281 were recommended by the commission for appointment to BS-17 posts in the federal government.
In 2017, 312 (3.32 per cent) of the 9,391 candidates who appeared for the exam had managed to clear it.
Of them, 261 were recommended for appointment to government posts.
The exam this year was held for recruitment to BS-17 posts in various government services including the Commerce and Trade Group, Foreign Service of Pakistan, Information Group, Inland Revenue Service, Military Lands & Cantonments Group, Office Management Group, Pakistan Administrative Service, Pakistan Audit and Accounts Service, Pakistan Customs Service, Police Service of Pakistan, Postal Group and the Railways (Commercial and Transportation) Group.
To revamp the civil service in the country, the government has decided that candidates would first undergo a screening test before being permitted to take the CSS exam.
The screening test was proposed by the FPSC earlier this year. In a report, the commission suggested that a screening test was necessary to filter out non-serious candidates, improve the quality of competition, ensure objectivity in paper assessment, and speed up the process of exam to reduce the timeframe and reduce the financial cost.
The commission noted that the number of applicants for the exam was continuously rising, resulting in delays in the examination process, difficulty in maintaining objectivity in assessing the answer papers and portraying a highly imbalanced ratio of passing candidates.
“The civil service that once carried prestige, respect and social status amongst the university graduates and the society as a whole has lost that image,” the report read.