Central Government’s refusal on scrapping the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) and not considering English marks for qualifying in the preliminary exam has received mixed reactions from the civil services aspirants of Jharkhand.
Some feel that the government has failed to understand the mindset of youths who wanted Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to remove CSAT as it gave more advantage to English medium candidates as well as to those hailing from a technical background. Others, acclaim CSAT a better way of understanding communication.
“It is good that CSAT is not removed. Preparing for aptitude test gives us the chance of understanding the communication skills which would help us in dealing with the public easily after becoming a civil servant,” Rajiv Ranjan, a resident of Hinoo, who will be appearing for upcoming civil services exam on August 24 said.
There are two papers, namely General Studies and CSAT, in the preliminary phase of Civil Services Examination conducted by UPSC every year. In 2011, CSAT was introduced instead of appearing for an optional paper along with General Studies.
Out of the 80 questions in CSAT, eight questions carrying 20 marks are on English language comprehension skills. Now the merit list for the Main examination will be prepared on the basis of student’s score out of 380 marks including 200 in General Studies and 180 in CSAT. Earlier, it used to be 400.
“This is not justified. Government’s decision has reduced the standard of Paper II,” said Chiranjeev Kumar, a B.Tech student residing in Hatia. He added, “It is obvious that a candidate appearing for UPSC examinations has a good hold on communication skills. CSAT helps in becoming a good communicator.”
Similarly, Kusan Kumar, a resident of Hehal preparing for his first PSC attempt through this examination said, “We would have been in trouble if CSAT was removed. Moreover, English comprehension is equivalent to class tenth’s English subject pattern. Any aspirant willing to become an IAS or IRS or IPS officer deserves to be a good communicator in Hindi and English, as both languages are important in India.”
On the other side, Uddhav Pratap, a Ranchi based lawyer preparing for PSC examinations for past three years said, “Aptitude test is an advantage for candidates possessing a degree in management or engineering as they had pursued the course after passing a national level aptitude test. But, it is not same for a candidate of Humanities. Government should have cancelled CSAT and followed the previous trend of appearing for an optional subject besides General Studies.” like Pratap, Dhananjay Singh, another local aspirant preparing in a New Delhi based coaching centre said, “It is difficult for a student of Humanities to pass an aptitude test giving more preference to technical subjects.”