NPSC : How Fair, Efficient and Transparent is My Exam?

Fortunately for NPSC aspirants, NPSC CSE 2015 went without any controversy. While NPSC should be lauded for ushering in stability and transparency in the examination process to a great extent, there is no denying that a lot still needs to be done. For instance, the quality of questions asked in the examination is still comparatively poor. NPSC still rely too much on factual questions. At this level, NPSC should be testing a candidate’s analytical and decision making ability, and not their ability to learn by rote and reproduce answers in the exam .This is not without saying that few interesting positive changes were observed in the 2015 exam, taking many aspirants by surprise. NPSC needs to continue this element of surprise . However the level of secrecy still maintained by the commission in disclosing the marks ,especially of the successful candidates, is still a big grey area thus providing an aura of doubt in the minds of many aspirants. No doubt, individual marks are disclosed on request, but NPSC should adopt a system where, in line with UPSC CSE, an aspirant can automatically assess their Main and interview marks online after the declaration of the final result. Going beyond this, UPSC discloses all the marks of successful candidates-Main Exam and personality test(interview) marks seperately. This is necessary to usher in complete transparency in the Exam. Another matter of concern is that of conducting personality test (interview).It has come to light that some candidates are scoring as much as 74 out of 75 in the personality test. This is a huge surprise and another grey area that needs the consideration of NPSC. Interview test cannot be conducted like it is done with assessing subjects like mathematics or science. Everything about it is subjective and at the discretion of the Commission members, therefore an element of doubt is created in the minds of the aspirants. NPSC needs to clarify it’s interview policies for the benefits of the aspirants. Disclosing the marks of all the successful candidates, publicly, will be one way of going about it. Not unlike public perception on the various government departments, unfortunately the public still holds a lot of scepticism towards NPSC. Transparency in all its dealings needs to be the watch word. Nagaland is still very much a welfare state depending upon it’s bureaucracy to run almost all its affairs, especially in the socio-economic sphere. We need hardworking, honest and deserving officials in the bureaucracy. The level of corruption in our state also reflects poorly on the selection mechanisms that have been in place so far. It is not asking much if the public needs to be assured that, people getting selected through NPSC are the right candidates and that the process is fair and without any element of doubt.

Sincerly, Ketu Angami Forest Colony Kohima, Nagaland