APPENDIX F : DESCRIPTION OF MAXIMUM QUALIFICATIONS AND MAXIMUM AGE LIMITS FOR ENTRY INTO DIFFERENT GRADES OF GOVERNMENT SERVICES SO AS TO CHECK THE TENDENCY TO DRIFT INTO COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES FOR THE SAKE OF SECURING JOBS
An important recommendation of the University Education Commission runs as follows :
"A university degree should not be required for Government Administrative Services. Special State examinations for recruitment to the various services should be organised and should be open to whosoever cares to take them. That this may not unduly add to the work of the Service Commissions, a small deposit may be prescribed for the privilege of taking examination and candidates satisfying a minimum standard of achievement may be entitled to refund. This would remove one of the chief evils of the educational system".
At present not only for the highest administrative services but also for a large number of services of the middle and subordinate
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grades, the minimum qualification is a university degree. Even for posts for which the minimum qualification is a matriculation certificate, candidates holding degrees are often given preference. Consequently there is a general drift into universities of all manner of students irrespective of whether they are suitable for higher education or not. Higher education has become only a stage for obtaining Government jobs.
It is doubtful if in any other progressive country in the world has such vocational character been acquired by university degrees.
It is, therefore, proposed that for all Government services except the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Foreign Service, the minimum qualification should be the Higher Secondary School Certificate or an equivalent certificate, and until the Higher Secondary School Certificate is introduced, the High School Certificate.
The evil will, however, not be checked by merely lowering the minimum qualification because unless the age limit is also lowered, there will always be a time lag between the passing of Higher School Certificate examination and the minimum age limit for entering services. During this period young men will only drift to the, universities for want of anything else. There are, however, some precedents of the manner in which this problem has been solved. For example, the maximum age limit for entry into the Armed Services is 17 years and for the Navy it is even less. After their selection, the candidates are subjected to an intensive course of training. In order that this training may not be devoid of liberal education, elements of such education have also been introduced into the courses of training.
It is, therefore, suggested that for most of the Government services the maximum age limit should be brought to the same level as for the Army viz, 17 years and there should be provision for two Years' training for most of these Government services. This training course should be carefully devised and while it will naturally be a specialised training, it should also provide a leavening of general education. In this way Government departments will be able to get better trained personnel at a relatively impressionable age. Only such boys and girls will go to the university as have special aptitude for University education or have high enough ability for competing for the Indian Administrative Service and Indian Foreign Service examination.
Unless this is done, although the minimum qualification may be a pass in the Matriculation or the Higher Secondary examination, candidates with higher qualifications will not be prevented from competing with those with lower qualifications. The present evils will,
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therefore, continue. For certain classes of set-vices, therefore, a maximum qualification is needed. Only in the case of services where higher qualifications are a necessity, there should be no maximum qualification, but in these cases also, if the recruitment is by a competitive examination, there should be no insistence on a very high qualification. Otherwise again the scramble for admission to the universities will continue. Since the recruitment will be by a competitive examination, no fall in standard need be feared. But a system like this will encourage more attention to private coaching than admission in college or university classes.
In order to implement these suggestions the Board should recommend to the Government of India that the Union Public Service Commission, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the State Governments may have a joint conference at which a detailed memorandum prepared by the Ministry of Education on these lines may be discussed.