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Muslims in Civil Services: Low-quality talent pool main hurdle

By Faraaz Mohiuddin,

The recent UPSC results showed that Muslims comprise about 3% of the total selection for Civil Services. Over the past few years, this percentage has been consistently in the range of 2.5 to 3.5. With so many community organisations working on increasing this very important statistic, it is time to think about why this number remains low despite years of effort on this front.

That we have put into place systems to enable Muslim students to get state-of-the-art coaching in preparation for the civil services examination is indeed a good development and a much-required one. However, I feel that our programs suffer from a low-quality intake, which is a reflection of the low quality of education our students have had. It may also be that the brighter students, who have the potential are not considering civil services as a career option and hence not figuring in our ‘talent-search’. In any case, we are unable to get our best students to enroll for these coaching and training programs.

As of today, at least 4 central universities are equipped with schemes to coach Muslim aspirants for civil service examinations. Many state governments are lining up to announce their own versions. At this pace, we will have so many programs, but none solving the root cause of the issue. All of them will face the ‘low-quality intake’ problem. The material resources at the disposal of our central university schemes are significant. The problem though is at a human resource level (student-resource). Such a problem is not solved by the number of schemes in operation, or the amount of money involved. The problem requires thoughtful analysis, a planned strategy, strong collaboration, and sustained implementation to pull it off.

Timely identification of talent, proper engagement and civil services examination orientation, guidance and support over a longer period of time will enable our community to produce a sizable number of graduates with the competence and aspiration to prepare for the civil service examinations. When out of this large pool, candidates are selected and intensively trained, then alone will this exercise have meaning and effect.

The only parallel I can mention as an illustration is from the competitive world of sports. Most teams develop their under 12 side, under 16 side and under 19 side, and build levels of competence in their ‘extended workshop’, with the aim to ultimately produce a highly skilled and competitive team, many years later. It is usually worth all the hard work, and worth the wait. And if competitive sport demands such rigor, then surely the development of an educationally and socially backward community, demands much more.

By directing all our focus on the short-term, superficial coaching program and not the supply-chain behind it, we are stuck in this unenviable position. And time is running out – the competition is getting beyond us by the minute.

My intention in writing this has been merely to share my understanding of the situation at hand. A more serious and focused study of the problem and its possible solutions is most certainly warranted, and I am willing to be part of such an exercise.

The writer is an IT professional based in Hyderabad. He can be contacted at [email protected])