Question : CIVIL SERVICES APTITUDE TEST

(a) whether the Government has recently brought out certain changes in the Civil Services Examination including the introduction of Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT);

(b) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;

(c) whether the introduction of CSAT has reportedly led to drop in the pass percentage of candidates opting Hindi medium;

(d) if so, the details thereof indicating the number of successful candidates in the said examinations who had opted English and Hindi medium and their relative pass percentage during the last three years and the current year; and

(e) the details of the corrective measures taken/proposed to be taken by the Government to ensure equal opportunity for Hindi medium candidates viz. a viz. English medium candidates in the said examination?

Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office. (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

(a) to (e): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

STATEMENT AS REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 45 ASKED BY SHRI SUNIL KUMAR SINGH & SHRI ARJUN MEGHWAL REGARDING CIVIL SERVICES APTITUDE TEST FOR ANSWER ON 09.07.2014.

(a) and (b): The Civil Services Examination (CSE) consists of two parts. In the first part, there is a preliminary examination and those who clear this examination are eligible for taking the main examination. Certain changes were introduced in the preliminary part with effect from CSE-2011. Till CSE-2010, for the Preliminary Examination, there was one paper of General Studies, which carried 150 marks, and a second Paper carrying 300 marks where the candidate had the option to choose one out of 23 optional Papers. Under the revised pattern there is a common platform of testing the candidates and there are two papers each carrying 200 marks for the Preliminary Examination. The details are at Annexure-I.

Further, certain changes were given effect to in the main part with effect from CSE-2013. The details are at Annexure-II.

The Government has not brought out any changes by way of introducing a paper named CSAT in the CSE.

(c): The medium of writing answers are relevant for CSE (Main) only. Answers for questions in preliminary are to be given in the form of shading of circles in Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) answer sheets. The question papers being mostly bilingual, it can be concluded that the preliminary examination is language neutral. Therefore, candidates taking preliminary examination cannot be grouped into Hindi or other medium.

(d) and (e): Do not arise.