Should Competitive Examinations Abolished?
In a sense, all examinations are competitive; for the candidates compete with one another for the highest places in the results. But “competitive examinations” proper are examinations held for the purpose of selecting candidates for certain posts. A good example is the Administrative Service Competitive Examination, by means of which the Indian Administrative Service is recruited. This examination is designed to test an applicant’s fitness for Government service in India. Every year Indians are selected for the service from among the successful candidates in this examination.
The case against competitive examinations is that they are not infallible test of fitness. They test a candidate’s knowledge of certain subjects, and, perhaps, his general mental ability and standard of education. But much more than this is needed to make a man fit for responsible work in Government service. Written examinations do not test a man’s administrative ability, his capacity for management, his practical common sense in everyday affairs, his power of making quick and wise decisions in a crisis, his tact and diplomacy, his character, or his strength of will. All these are qualities necessary for success in the work of a Civil Servant in India. Men having these qualities may fail and men without them may pass, in a competitive examination. The examination an imperfect sieve, that may catch the unfit and let the fit go through.
It is further pointed out that it is quite possible to pass an examination by judicious cramming. This means that an examination may not be a real test even of knowledge and intelligence. For knowledge acquired by cramming is superficial and so easily forgotten, and has no effect in training the intellectual powers. The students who top in school and college examination, and carry off all the prizes, are not always the men who make a success of their lives afterwards. It is sometimes the boy who was considered dull at school who achieves fame in after life.
There is, no doubt, much truth in all this. But, while it is easy to pick out the weak points in the examination system, it is not at all easy to devise a better substitute for it. Some test there must be ; and it is hard to see what other form it could take. Perhaps personal interviews with the candidates in conjunction with the examination would help the authorities to judge their general ability better. Also, a period of probation for accepted candidates would show whether they had the right stuff in them. But it is difficult to see how competitive examinations could be altogether abolished.
