THE collapse is alarming, but care should be taken in diagnosing the reasons for it lest superficial solutions end up worsening the problem. The Central Superior Services exam, for many years a prestigious entry point to a career in public administration, has hit a new low point. According to the Federal Public Services Commission, just 2pc of candidates passed the examination in 2016. The actual numbers are even starker — 9,643 candidates appeared for the written exam and only 202 individuals secured enough marks to qualify for the interview state. Following the interview, 199 candidates survived and of those individuals 193 have been recommended for appointment. The latest results confirm a long-term decline that appears to have accelerated in recent years. Halting that trend, let alone reversing it, will take an almighty effort by the state.

The first stage of the problem is the number of candidates who consider it even worthwhile to apply to take the CSS exam — a host of factors, including job security and pay, draw new graduates towards the private sector. While that may be a global phenomenon, more developed economies have enough quality candidates to fill both the public- and private-sector pipelines. Pakistan does not have that luxury. What Pakistan does have is an especially broken bureaucracy — heavily politicised; few effective checks and balances; and honest, diligent bureaucrats always running the danger of being sidelined by colleagues or political masters. With a higher education system that already produces so few talented individuals, can the latter be faulted for preferring careers outside the public sector? Compounding the problem are the 18th Amendment reforms — while devolving higher education to the provinces was arguably necessary, implementation has been particularly weak in the sector. Could the CSS results have been hit particularly hard by the uneven and weak performance of the new provincial higher education commissions?

There are also problems with the CSS examination itself. A recent opinion piece in these pages highlighted a number of remarkable flaws and mistakes in the 2015 and 2016 CSS exams and concluded: “This kind of examination would surely rule out the wise in favour of the dull, the timid, and the clever — those who memorise appropriate answers, refrain from speaking their minds, and say what would curry favour. A selection mechanism cannot identify selectees wiser than the selectors. That might explain the dilemma of the civil service in which each cohort is weaker than the one it succeeds.” And while the CSS exam itself may be self-limiting in the search for the best candidates in the application pool, there is also the question of diversity that remains unaddressed. Allocations for women and non-Muslim vacancies often go unfilled, undermining what ought to be a core principle of a representative bureaucracy serving a diverse public. Change is possible, but only if honest critiques are accepted.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2017