4 days ago
Duration of the CSE exam cannot be curtailed, the UPSC says
The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has informed a parliamentary panel that the duration of the one-year long Civil Services Examination (CSE) cannot be curtailed.
The time cycle for the CSE had been optimised to the extent possible, despite an increase in the number of candidates, centres and venues over the years, following a detailed analysis of the time taken in the pre-examination and post examination activities, the Commission said.
'One of the most vital factors that go into the determination of the time schedule of an examination is the need to maintain the utmost confidentiality and integrity of the examination process. Various checks and balances have been integrated in the examination system, which have been gained through years of experience to eliminate the risk to confidentiality and integrity,' the UPSC said in its reply to the the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice.
The reply is mentioned in the 154th Report on Action Taken on the 131st Report on 'Review of Functioning of Recruitment Organisations of Government of India' pertaining to the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, tabled in the Rajya Sabha on August 8.
The CSE is conducted in three stages — the Preliminary Examination (objective type), the Civil Services (Mains) Examination (descriptive type), and Personality Test/Interview. The exams are held to recruit officers for 19 civil services, including the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Indian Police Service (IPS), and the Indian Foreign Service (IFS).
In accordance with the current trend, the number of applications for the Preliminary Examination was over one million every year, the UPSC said. The 2023 Examination was held at 79 centres across the country, with 2,538 venues to accommodate 10.27 lakh candidates.
The gap between the three phases of the exam had been within a range of around two-and-a-half to three months, the UPSC said, adding that there was hardly any scope to further compress the time between the date of advertisement or notification of the CSE, and the date of holding it.
Evaluation of nine descriptive-type answer scripts took more time, that is, over two months, as nearly 1.20 lakh answer sheets in different subjects were evaluated by different teams of experts, the UPSC said.
The parliamentary panel had recommended a comprehensive re-examination of the civil services recruitment framework, stressing that the process be rationalised and streamlined. 'At present, the examination cycle stretches across almost an entire year,' the panel said.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee had asked the Department of Personnel and Training to establish a clear timeline for the implementation of the Baswan Committee's reforms. In 2015, an expert committee, chaired by B.S. Baswan, former Secretary, Ministry of Education, was constituted to comprehensively examine the various issues regarding the CSE, including a high rate of absenteeism among the applicants to the exam.
The panel said that UPSC should explore the feasibility of declaring the answer key to the Preliminary exam after the exam was over, instead of publishing it after the declaration of the final results.
'Candidates should be allowed to raise objections at this stage only, and on that basis, any discrepancies related to the answer key of the Preliminary examination should be resolved. This should be taken into account before publishing the results of candidates qualifying for the next stage, i.e., the Civil Services Mains examination,' the panel said.
The UPSC said it had an online Question Paper Representation Portal (QPRep) on its website, where candidates could submit their views on any aspect of a question. The Commission released the answer key after the completion of the entire process, a policy it followed in all examinations, which had been working smoothly. 'As the above system of disclosing keys after the final result of the Examination is working fine since inception and serving the larger public interest very well, no requirement is felt to change the same,' the UPSC said.
The matter is sub judice in the Supreme Court, the UPSC told the parliamentary panel.
