PSC
For Better Bureaucrats

By K. P. Sharma

For years, there have been complaints about the curriculum of the examinations conducted by the Public Service Commission (PSC) that one must pass to join the civil service. The PSC is finally taking the complaints seriously and revising the curriculum.

"We are revising the syllabus for almost all levels (of examinations) due to the complaints," said Dr. Madhunidhi Tiwari, PSC member who is also the coordinator of the Curriculum Demarcation Unit of the Commission. "The new syllabuses will be more practical, analytical and recreative."

Tiwari accepted that the present evaluation system of the PSC is irrelevant and outdated. The country’s civil service sector now needs practical hands and less of those with only theoretical knowledge.

The PSC is the only constitutional body authorised to advertise for and screen qualified candidates as per the demands by the different ministries to man the country’s administrative and technical sectors.

The civil service sector has often been the main attraction for the burgeoning educated unemployed, especially now with the sharp increase in the payscale of government employees. Thousands of educated youth flock to apply whenever the PSC calls for applications for various posts.

The Commission had revised its curriculum some eight years ago in 1993. Under the present curriculum there are three papers of hundred marks each on general knowledge, social studies and a paper related to Nepalese laws and regulations.

In each of the papers, objective questions carry 50 marks. But questions often tend to repeat. And the examination system has little in the way of gauging the candidates’ analytical and recreative faculty.

Under the proposed curricula, the PSC will include all the necessary faculties of knowledge a civil servant for a certain post requires.

A study conducted by the PSC has shown that the present curricula intended for the selection of a section officer lacks:

• Academic knowledge in a particular subject that helps him on the job.

• knowledge that helps him carry out his responsibilities.

• Academic, analytical, argumentative and recreative faculty.

• Ability to solve problems

• correct use of language

Apart from that, the survey found that a lot of questions were on law and general knowledge which had little to do with one’s job. It also pointed out that the curriculum for free and internal competitions were not different. Similarly, it was found that the present examination system was very expensive and there was no such thing as screening.

Under the proposed curriculum there will be two competitions: preliminary test and main test.

The preliminary examination will test a candidate’s abstract reasoning, numerical reasoning, knowledge about management and organisation and social issues, ability to translate from Nepali to English and from English to Nepali, summary writing and knowledge about their field of study in the universities.

Those who get screened through the preliminary test are entitled to sit for the final examination. The final test will be on the development process of Nepal’s Civil Service Sector and its present condition, proposal writing in both Nepali and English languages, problem solving questions and questions related to laws and regulations. Finally, they must sit for an interview.

The PSC has already held discussions with high ranking government officials on the structure of the curriculum for feedback. Its members have also visited different parts of the country to see how the civil servants work.

The new curriculum for the PSC examinations will take about a year to come into effect.

The government’s Public Expenditure Review Commission (PERC) is still working on the number of civil employees employed by the government and the actual number needed to run the country’s administration.

In its first interim report presented on Friday the PERC has suggested the government to trim down the number of ministries and scrap the district and regional level offices which have overlaping functions. If the government seriously follows the report of the Commission, the counrty's bureaucratic set up may get a face lift.

Presently, the bloated bureaucracy employs more than 100,000 civil servants whereas the country needs only about 70,000 to man the administration.

Meanwhile, Tiwari is hopeful that the number of civil employees will go down with the government calling for a golden handshake.

According to the Ministry of General Administration, every day about 25 civil servants who have either reached 50 years of age or have served in the country’s administration for 20 years apply for the golden handshake.

Nepal Bandh Called Off
Triumph Or Retreat?

By Our Correspondent

IN a rare case of compromise, the coalition of nine left parties called off the Nepal bandh on Thursday (and Friday), but not without extracting a concession from the government.

The government on the eve of the bandh agreed to bring down the price of kerosene by Rs. 4 to Rs. 22 a liter.

While the nine left parties have taken it as a triumph, others see it as a retreat under a face-saving measure under immense pressure from the business community. There was also likely to be little support from the public, with the main beneficieries of the bandh being the political parties themselves.

Ever since the state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) raised the price of petroleum products a month back, citing hikes in their prices in the international market, the opposition has been after the government to reduce the price of kerosene used by the common man to cook meals. The government had raised the price of kerosene from Rs. 13 to 26 about a month back.

Experts argue that if NOC were to function efficiently, kerosene could be had for Rs. 20 a liter. The government provides five liters of kerosene to a family a month at a subsidized rate of Rs. 15.50 through a coupon system. But the government has yet to work out a workable sytem to distribute the coupons.

The Nepal bandh for two days had the support of the main Opposition Party in Parliament, the CPN (UML) as well as the Rastriya Prajatantra Party.

But the bandh planned as it was in the midst of the tourist season came under heavy criticism from tourism as well as business entrepreneurs. The bandhs, an outcome of the multi-party democracy, has cost the country dear, affecting life and causing damage to state property. And the bandh could not have come at a worse time. The annual meeting of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) was taking place last week. There were more than 600 delegates attending the five-day conference in Nepal, chosen for its immense success in conserving its biodiversity.

Every year tens of bandhs are organized to hammer home an issue, but they have never been had any effect on resolving issues. This year alone, political parties and other groups have organised bandhs totalling around 25 days.

Together with the national economy, the victims are Nepal’s tourism industry, business and industry. Schools remain closed. So do colleges, while people walk to work, often for more than an hour on such days.

The only respite is that there is no pollution in Kathmandu on that day.

Meanwhile, the latest bandh by the nine left parties is seen by many as a mere tactic to prove their existence in Nepal’s politics dominated by the two political parties — the ruling Nepali Congress and the CPN (UML).

Considering the adverse impact of such bandhs on the tourism industry, the people involved in the tourism sector have asked the opposition parties and interest groups not to take up the medium of bandhs to fulfil their demands. They have also told the government to plan their moves to avoid the possibility of such bandhs.

But there is no party in Nepal, including the ruling Nepali Congress Party, that has not organized a bandh during the past 10 years. So advising others not to do so is only likely to draw flak.

SLC (Supplementary) Results Out

By Our Correspondent

Office of the Controller of Examinations has published the results of the supplementary SLC exams held in Bhadra-Aswin 2057.

According to the Controllers office, a total of 47,157 (58.15%) students have passed from among 81,095 examinees who had appeared in the examinations.