THE ‘education emergency’ that many experts have been warning about for a number of years has been manifesting itself in various important areas of national life. One of these is the Central Superior Services exam, the qualification through which inductions into the bureaucracy are made. However, as the National Assembly Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat was informed recently, just 202 out of over 9,600 candidates, or 2.09pc, managed to pass the CSS papers; 92pc of the candidates failed in English. Depressing as these figures may be, they are by no means shocking. While the selection process for the bureaucracy must be rigorous, with the best of the best inducted, it is clear that these results point to a major crisis in the Pakistani education system. As a representative of the Federal Public Service Commission, which oversees the CSS exams, told the NA committee, these abysmal results reflect deteriorating educational standards in this country.

CSS reform should be amongst the state’s priorities, as it has a direct impact on the quality of governance. Over the decades, several attempts have been made to reform the bureaucracy — 38, according to a recent UNDP study, since independence. The current administration has also called for a “complete overhaul” of the civil service under Vision 2025. However, it should be understood that the recruitment process for the bureaucracy does not exist in a vacuum; if the education system is producing subpar graduates, then this low level of human capital does not offer a very capable talent pool for CSS administrators to choose from. Whether it is government service or the private sector, the vast majority of our educational institutions — from the primary level to the tertiary — are just not producing enough men and women qualified to meet the challenges of the times. Some short-term interventions can be made to improve human resources in the civil service. For example, in-service training of government servants should be geared towards imparting the latest skills in the given field and allowing bureaucrats to brush up their knowledge of their respective services. Moreover, promotions and progress on the job should be linked to merit and ability, with no scope whatsoever for political meddling. But taking the long view, whether it is the civil service or any other sector, without massive, visionary and long-term reform of Pakistan’s education system, improvement in the quality of human capital in this country will be very difficult.

Published in Dawn December 8th, 2016