IN recent years, I have seen people going crazy about a career in the Central Superior Services (CSS). It has become a sort of mania that has gripped the youth of the country. Almost every individual is in search of some kind of guidance to qualify the CSS examinations. To many, it has become a wild goose chase. They try to approach every individual who seems to have any knowledge about or experience of these competitive examinations.

Unfortunately, most CSS aspirants remain miles away from achieving their goal and the results of the last few years are proof of this fact as the pass percentage has been dismally low.

Statistics show that less than two per cent of the aspirants succeed in clearing the written test.

Resultantly, the unsuccessful candidates are always under immense pressure as their long-cherished dream of joining the supposedly elite club dash to the ground. They tend to think that there is no option left for them to earn a respectable living.

This trend should be discouraged because the candidates who fall short of making it to the final list often carry a serious psychological burden.

In most cases, such candidates recede deep into the domain of depression and that leads to talent wastage. Both parents and teachers must guide the young that failure in competitive examinations does not mean the end of the world. Rather, there are many other professions where they can excel and earn not just a respectable living, but may well attain some prestigious position in society.

Another aspect which needs our attention is the misplaced practice of linking the CSS examinations with our educational system.

Whenever the CSS result is declared, there is a lot of hue and cry, and the fingers start pointing towards our educational system which is said to be falling, if not disintegrating.

As an educationist, I categorically disapprove of this mentality because assessing our entire education system on the basis of the poor performance of CSS aspirants is an illogical act.

There is no denying that there are faults in terms of curriculum, teaching methodology and the assessment system, but blaming solely our educational system for the failure of a miniscule percentage of the overall student population is not fair.

Passing CSS examinations must not be the yardstick to judge the education sector. It needs no mentioning that this is the same educational system which provided the nation some brilliant bureaucrats, military officers, politicians, educationists, writers, scientists, doctors, engineers and journalists, who earned name and fame, and became a pride for the nation. We must set realistic goals for our university graduates.

Muhammad Fayyaz Nawrha

Mianwali

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2021