THE UPSC DREAM ?

 

 

THE UPSC DREAM ?

 

Dream!!!! Isn’t that the only thing for which the mere mortals among us go through their entire lives.  Chasing a dream, right from the time they are born and till that inevitable end. Chasing a dream, a dream, that appears to be just beyond their outstretched fingertips. But close and enticing enough, to push themselves, extending the physiological and psychological boundaries, with each passing minute. In our country, the one endeavour that perhaps symbolizes this constant chase is the Civil Services Examination. It’s like a world cup final, comes once in a while, a few are crowned champions and the rest, they are just participants. In this case, application forms personified. The numbers are astounding with lakhs of candidates filling forms for the coveted job and the ultimate winners, very few in numbers. In the completed exams of 2019-20, around 11 Lakhs had filled the form, half of them had appeared for the preliminary test and finally, a grand 927 were selected, nearly 0.16pc. So what happens with rest 99.84pc, they are again sold dreams in the plush offices of merchants that too need to be maintained. You look at cities like Delhi, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Jaipur, and on and on. Coaching centres are sprawling everywhere, with better management and high end offices looking more like 5 star hotel lobbies, the scene is fast getting complex with an increasing farce of the simplicity that an aspirant is presented with. Advertising pamphlets flying around the streets, brochures popping up on the browser window and those ‘10 step method to become an IAS’ videos being suggested on the social media pages, it is pretty easy for any dream chaser, in a college, getting sucked into this world of the great career moulders.

And there in comes the business part of the system, hundreds and thousands of centres providing structured programs at hefty prices, test series at different rates, paper thin booklets costing a few bucks, even interview programs when the forms are to be filled still and the hundreds of photographs outside, of selected candidates basically creates this charade of surety of being an IAS officer the next summer, for literally every aspirant who walks in. Bluntly put, education here is for sale. It’s an Alice in wonderland being served without a veil of sensitivity.

All of this leads up to expectations and then their crashing of it, for a substantial portion of the dreamers. With so much being at stake, so many lives depending on it, the peer pressure from over excited relatives, and the biggest of them all, the fear of failure. It becomes like a whirlpool that has the potential to drown people to dejection and then we many a times hear the stories of young boys and girls, who thought that their life was over and commit suicide. Yes, you read that right. A mere exam that could at best help you, after years of service, become a secretary to the prime minister of this country, can force people to end their lives. That is another dark and real truth.

 But one cannot only blame the aspirants for it. What about the society? Do they not have any responsibility towards preparing children into tough citizens? Or, is it okay being fence sitters unless it’s our child? Certainly not. The psyche of the people in general needs to change, the set patterns of disrespecting others for the lack of the ‘sarkari’ prefix needs to unshackle. So, the next pertinent question is, how do we do that?

First and foremost, as well aware citizens, we need to start asking for accountability from the administrators and not consider them some kind of medieval nobles who are above the law. And then, will come the change in attitude in our aspirations where our motive is to serve and not become royalties. This will definitely reduce the mental capital that is riding on a youngster clearing an exam. We as a society, as a nation and most crucially as a family, need to realise that there are a plethora of fields, apart from being e.g., a DM, where in people can succeed and reach excellence and hence command respect. And now, as for the coaching centres, the methods they operate with and the responsibility that they too need to carry out is essential to keep a reality check on what they are presenting to an aspirant, while trying to encourage him/her towards the illustrious job profile. It has to be the duty of the coaching centre to let a new aspirant know the chances of being a civil servant for anyone and also being very clear in notifying to the aspirant, that joining the institution won’t guarantee success, rather than letting them realise this while studying at the centre, over a period of time, because it’s too late already by then.

So, is it that bad? Is there no hope? This article in itself is a sign that there is hope, that this realization is happening, may be slowly but surely. Though the digital platforms, as mentioned above, have been used by the merchants of education for their own business purposes but they are also becoming agents of change in this realization. There are many social media platforms that are providing free of cost study matter for anyone who cannot afford to spend lakhs and lakhs of rupees for the same. There is scope for egalitarianism too. But it is only a silver lining; a clear sky needs a lot of work still. A more permanent solution needs to found out, there are just too many lives at stake and not enough care for it. I say, a debate is in the reckoning and that too, on a national level. The future of a whole nation might just be hanging in the balance and we need to tip the scales in our favour.