For many university graduates, landing a government job is not only a great opportunity to serve the country, but also a good career prospect. For this, many young men and women can be seen studying in public libraries or other academic libraries all day to prepare for the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) examinations. Many also attend ‘coaching’ centres for private tutoring. Y&I spoke with some candidates, qualified BCS cadres, educationalists and government officials regarding the public exams.
According to its website, the Bangladesh Public Service Commission (BPSC) is a constitutional body that selects suitable and qualified persons for service to the republic through the BCS exams, and the recruited officers are called BCS cadres. There are 27 different cadres, including general, technical, and professional; and five quotas for different groups. The age limit for general candidates is 21 to 30 years, but for those applying from various quotas it is 32. The minimum qualification is to be a graduate from any university.
Regarding the recruitment process for government jobs, Shankar Datta, who passed the 35th BCS exams (in 2016) and is now appointed as a lecturer at Kushtia Government College, said: “According to the rules, 45 percent of posts are allocated on merit basis, while the remaining 56 percent is distributed according to set quotas _ 30 percent for freedom fighters and their children, 10 percent for women, 10 percent for districts or divisions, 5 percent for ethnic minorities and 1 percent for disabled candidates. I am not against the quota system. Of course, it is needed. But I think the time has come to reduce the percentages of the various quotas.”
The BCS exams involve a preliminary test with multiple choice questions for 200 marks and a written exam for 1,100 marks. There is no assigned pass mark in the preliminary, but candidates must obtain at least 50 percent of marks in the written exam to qualify, Datta said. Later on, a viva voce test is held for 200 marks, and pass mark is 100.
This public examination consumes a lot of time of prospective candidates. Noni Gopal Bepari, 26, completed his master’s degree in English from Dhaka University in 2013. After taking preparation, he sat for the BCS exams in 2015 for the first time. But he qualified for a non-cadre job. So, he took the exams again in 2016 and qualified for BCS (general education), according to the 36th BCS exam results published in 2017.
About the length of time required to prepare for the exams, Bepari said, “About one and a half years are needed to complete the BCS recruitment process. Before the 36th preliminary exam, I did not go to any coaching centre. But I used to study with my friends in a group. We had five members in our group and they were all from different academic backgrounds. So, it helped us a lot to understand different subjects from each other. We also collected model question papers from our friends who were going to coaching centres. After taking the model tests by ourselves, we were able to find out our shortcomings, and thus, prepare better accordingly. Before sitting for the written examination, I went for a few days to a coaching centre where I got the chance to test the standard of my preparation.”
Giving more importance on group study, rather than going for tutoring, Bepari said: “Self assessment and group study are most important for taking preparation for any competitive exams. Those who do not have such opportunity, they may go to coaching centres to maintain a routine and get motivated.”
“Candidates who attended public universities have many options, like they can use university libraries even after graduation. But National University students, for example, those who studied in remote corners of the country, have to face so many difficulties preparing for competitive exams. So, going to coaching centres might be a good option for them, but they have to spend a lot of money,” he added.
Abirata Roy, 27, another English graduate from Dhaka University, who passed the 36th BCS exams this year and has been selected for police service, had a different take on preparing for exams: “I did not go to any coaching centre. I didn’t even go for group study. I studied on my own. At first, I tried to find out details about the competitive exam and read accordingly. I have appeared in two BCS exams. I was recommended for a non-cadre job after the 35th BCS, but I chose to retake the exams.”
Soumitra Sekhar, a professor at the Bangla department of Dhaka University, also emphasised on group study, instead of coaching. “There is no need to go to coaching centres as most of the people running those are not qualified. I always advise my students to make study groups. They have to revise their whole academic curriculum and catch up with current affairs. It is better for candidates to do it with their friends, in an active group,” he said.
“Actually, BCS is an examination of elimination. On the other hand, academic exams are for getting certificates. The civil service exam selects 10 out of 100,000 candidates. So, a candidate must be very smart and excel in their chosen subject. He or she will be an officer of the republic. So, there is no alternative to BCS exams to fill up government posts. The preliminary question paper is designed to test the knowledge level of the candidates. For their dream BCS job, candidates must revise everything from their academic courses,” Sekhar added, explaining the feature of the BCS exams.
Keshab Bardhan, 36, a chartered accountant and a Dhaka University graduate, has been tutoring BCS candidates as a maths instructor since 2014. About the need for tutoring candidates who are already graduates, Bardhan said: “The academic syllabuses and the BCS syllabus are different. After graduating in any subject, a candidate may have enough knowledge to achieve only 10 to 15 percent marks in the BCS exams. So, they have to take preparation to get the rest of the marks. That is why they come to coaching centres.”
“In general, we always discourage academic coaching; there are some teachers who prefer to tutor privately, instead of spending time teaching in class. But career-oriented coaching centres are urgently required for those who have to prepare for the most competitive government jobs, like civil service, banking and other state jobs,” Bardhan added.
Regarding popularity of coaching centres among candidates, Nustain Billah, 35, chief operating director of BCS Porikroma, a career consultation firm, said: “From my two years of experience, I have seen jobseekers coming to us for proper guidance. They are all educated people, but they need a space where they can take preparation for the competitive exam in a disciplined manner. And we are the right choice in that regard. We are not so-called academic coaching centres. We are registered as a consultancy firm with the National Board of Revenue (NBR).”
Atiqul Islam Pathan, director of National Academy for Educational Management (NAEM), had different view of coaching centre. In a telephone conversation, he said: “When I applied for the BCS exams after graduating in Islamic Studies from Islamic University (Kushtia), there were no coaching centres. It was possible for a student from a village to get first position on merit. But the scenario has changed with time. Candidates cannot do without going to coaching centres. I have visited four different countries and found no coaching centres there. The concept of coaching or tutoring is unknown to them. Going to a coaching centre cannot be the way for availing BCS or other jobs. It is a meaningless concept, and waste of time and money. My suggestion is to shut down all coaching centres in the country as soon as possible.”
About BCS syllabuses and the lengthy exam process, Muhammed Sadique, chairman of Bangladesh Public Service Commission, said: “We have to outsource our work. For that, we have a strong committee comprising of academicians, including university teachers, joint secretary-level government officers and prominent citizens, who formulate the questions and check them. They help us to complete the whole exam process, from preliminary to viva.”
“We don’t have our own exam halls. So, we have to coordinate the exam timing with the educational institutions, so we can use their hall rooms. Besides BCS, we have to arrange examinations for non-cadre and other government jobs as well. So, we need extra time to manage the whole examination process. Since the 35th BCS (2015), we are trying to hold the exams on schedule. That is why the time duration of the exam has been reduced. The final results of the 36th BCS and written exam results of the 37th have been published recently. We keep an eye not to overlap the exams. On the other hand, the number of candidates is increasing every year and thus, we are facing difficulty accommodating the large number of examinees,” the BPSC chairman added.
BPSC sources said regular holding of BCS exams in recent years has made jobseekers more enthusiastic about public service. In the 35th BCS exams held in 2014, some 244,107 candidates applied for 1,803 vacancies; 211,326 took the 36th BCS exams in 2015 for 2,180 posts, while 243,476 vied for 1,226 vacancies in the 37th BCS exams in 2016.
Graduates from private universities are also getting interested in taking BCS exams. Among them, Sumaiya Akter, 28, who has a master’s degree in law from a private university, said: “After making it to the list of 2,500, out of 60,000 candidates, in the Bangladesh Judicial Service Commission (BJSC) exams, I felt that I could also qualify for BCS. So, I started preparation at a coaching centre. I sat for the 36th written exams, but I could not pass as my preparation was not good enough. I hope I will be able to do better in the next (37th) BCS exams.”
About the country’s education system in general, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid told The Weekend Independent: “We are trying to make our students ready for acquiring all kinds of knowledge, so they can keep pace with the modern world. We have designed academic curriculums to increase their curiosity for knowledge. We are teaching them the strategy of learning, and the rest is up to them. Besides academic education, they should learn a lot. They should read books outside the syllabus to enrich their knowledge. They should also have practical knowledge. They have to know how to learn new things. They have to come out of their limitation and become global learners.”
Photos: File, internet