Overall, the new trends will culminate in fresh ideas which will turn out our future bureaucrats
LAHORE: The Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) has recently revised the syllabi of the Central Superior Services (CSS). The previous syllabi seemed not to fall in line with modern standards of competitive examinations. The change, thus, is positive. Overall, the new trends will culminate in fresh ideas which will turn out our future bureaucrats. Microscopic examination of the new syllabi has led me to bring to light abundant conceptual mistakes in it, and typos are no exceptions. For example, the political science paper focuses on Pierre Bourdieu and Gramsci — who were actually sociologists who had presented no political theories. Similarly, Sartre, Descartes and Kierkegaard also never expounded any political theories. In Muslim political thought, the case is the same. Imam Ghazali and al Ghazali are considered two different persons. May I consider it a typographical mistake or was this the ignorance of the syllabus designer? As for the typos, there are many: Rawls is written as ‘Rawis’, Francis as ‘Frances’, Kierkegaard as ‘Kierkegard’ and Descartes as ‘Descarte’.
In my opinion, the new political science syllabus is not workable. I would suggest the FPSC to consult a seasoned political scientist on the syllabus for the 2016 CSS examination. The said syllabus should be free from all conceptual and typographical errors.
Shahrukh Rasheed
Published in The Express Tribune, May 19th, 2015.
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