By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, April 17: Following the disastrous performance of Meghalaya in the Civil Services (Mains) 2023, results of which were declared on Tuesday, academician and experts of the state have called for a study to be conducted to find out the factors responsible for the failure and also expressed hope that things will definitely change in the future with professional coaching platforms, NEP implementation and other interventions.
At least 18 candidates from the Northeast, include nine from violence-hit Manipur, cracked the examination. From Assam, five candidates cleared the coveted exam with Abhijnan Hazarika securing the best rank (172) from the region. Four candidates from Nagaland also cleared the examination.
“The UPSC declared the Civil Services results yesterday and I am sad no one from Meghalaya cleared the examination. Reports indicate several applicants from Assam, Nagaland and Manipur were successful,” noted historian and former UPSC chairman, David R Syiemlieh told The Shillong Times on Wednesday.
“Those who attempted the examination and the interview may be asked politely why they were not able to make it. They need to be encouraged and supported to write the examination again,” he added.
“For sure it is a difficult competitive examination to get through. We trust that in the years to come our young graduates will find place in the list and thereafter join the All India Services.”
NEHU academician Dr Veronica Pala said, “We have to go to the basics. The problem is the school education system. Our school education system is such that students lack foundational skills and at every level there is a deficiency build-up and it accumulates. When they reach the higher education level their syllabus is not at par with the rest of the country in terms of the number of papers they have to study.”
She continued: “NEHU offers only eight papers for Honours whereas in some universities it is more than twenty papers so definitely our students are at a disadvantage. To some extent this will be corrected by the NEP.”
“Another thing is that the competitive spirit is lacking in Meghalaya. As a community we are a bit laidback and the competitive spirit is not there. Also, the lack of professional coaching institutes in the state adds to the problem,” she added.
NEHU Professor SM Sungoh, said, “I really don’t know the factors as I have not worked on it yet but right now once NEP is implemented after four years students will be exposed to various types of courses and will be able to improve themselves.”
“We also need coaching centres which are good as many of our students cannot afford to go outside. We need to improve ourselves and we need to also formulate a strategy on how to work on this because we also need to create some kind of awareness for the students who intend to appear for such competitive examination,” she added.
She suggested, “Right from the secondary level we need to train them and offer courses which will help them crack the UPSC exams. We need to find out the real problems and issues pertaining to the students’ performances.”
“We need to conduct a study on it and find out the factors responsible for such a dismal performance. New courses that we are offering in the colleges will bring changes but that will happen in three or four years,” she added.