Embedded mediocrity

The recent announcement of the results of the Central Superior Services exams have been termed ‘a national crisis’

There are times when clichés are the only appropriate response, and that which says that as you sow then so shall you reap is never truer or more apposite. The recent announcement of the results of the Central Superior Services (CSS) exams have been termed ‘a national crisis’ by the newly-appointed Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) chairperson, who has announced that a high-level committee is to be set up in order to probe the poor performance of the 9,391 candidates who appeared in the written examination and only 312 managed to pass, reduced to 310 after the viva voce. There were 155 males and 355 females who made the grade and will be recommended for Grade 17 appointments. This is not the first year that alarm and concerns have been raised about the quality of candidates, but little by way of concrete action has come from this.

The calamity is the direct result of a consistent and willful failure to invest in education at every level since Independence. It is difficult to blame the candidates because they are mostly the product of an education system that is flawed from the outset at state level and little better than mediocre at the private level as well, with even the most prestigious of private schools delivering into the workplace young men and women poorly equipped to make good in the modern world. If students are given poor tools it is hardly their fault if they perform poorly.

The consequences of failure are there for all to see at least in the case of the civil service. Its quality has decline over the years, it has become increasingly politicised and far from being a centre of excellence is just another drab and inefficient organ of the state that has difficulty emptying its wastepaper baskets never mind delivering a quality product. It has taken decades to arrive at this position and there is no quick fix despite the chairperson of the HEC committing to identifying the problem. He knows perfectly well what the problem is. He is himself the product of the system. Educate the masses? Certainly not. They only get uppity if you do.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2018.

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