The number of students writing the UPSC mains exam in English has been disproportionately high over the last few years compared to that in the past, analysis of UPSC data from 2009 to 2014 show.
Data was compiled from annual reports of UPSC by public information portal ‘Factly’, which they shared with The Hindu .
A significant jump was seen in the year 2011 when 83 per cent candidates took the mains exam in English compared to around 62 per cent in 2009. Corresponding to that, Hindi saw a steep decline – a drop of around 20 percentage points from 36 per cent in 2010 to 15 per cent in 2011.
This sudden change coincides with the introduction of the CSAT examination in UPSC prelims in 2011. This change was opposed by many, as it was argued that the new pattern was biased in favor of English-speaking students.
Note that data on the language chosen by candidates to write prelims is not available which makes it difficult to establish whether the jump is indeed indicative of a bias or if that is a consequence of more students taking the prelims exam in English.
Yogendra Yadav, founder of Swaraj Abhiyan and finds this trend concerning. Speaking with The Hindu, he said, “In India, language is one of the most significant markers of social inequality. Much of the social dominance is translated into language. The language of dominance – English – is now the dominant language and it is shocking to see this reverse in trend.”
Mr. Yadav says that students coming to bureaucracy from Indian language medium bring along certain sensitivity and understanding of problems of ordinary people.
In the Indian Languages section, most students opted for Hindi in the period from 2009 to 2014, followed by Marathi. But the proportion of students opting for Hindi is on a decline. 66 per cent candidates chose Hindi in 2014 compared to 74 per cent in 2009.
Caption for above chart: Apart from Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi are the only languages chosen by more than 5 per cent candidates
On the other hand, percentage of students choosing Marathi is increasing – from 5 per cent in 2009 to 9 per cent in 2014, with a peak in 2013 when 11 per cent chose the language. Note that apart from Hindi, only Marathi, Tamil and Telugu are chosen by more than 5 per cent of the candidates in the Indian language exam.
On an average, 20 per cent of the selected candidates are alumni of IITs and University of Delhi put together. Jawaharlal Nehru University, Anna University and Rajasthan University are other prominent universities from where most students come from.
These apart, University of Mumbai, University of Allahabad, MGR Medical University, IGNOU, Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Osmania University and University of Pune are the ones from where more than ten students have qualified the exam in few or all years between 2009 to 2013.
Data show that students with engineering background now comprise the bulk of selected students, overtaking humanities. 51 per cent of the recommended candidates in 2013 were engineers, compared to 30 per cent in 2009.
Earlier, Humanities students were the most successful – 50 per cent of the students were from humanities background in 2004. But in 2011 and 2013, students with humanities education comprised of just 27 per cent of all the selected candidates. Around 12 per cent of the students have a background in medicine.
“In my broad experience over decades, I find that technical persons don't do as well or better than non-technical people in the field of administration,” TSR Subramaniam, former Cabinet Secretary told The Hindu. “For the engineering students, it is not their subject knowledge, but their training of mind that comes to play in this role,” he added, while expressing his concern that we need talent in every walk of life not just in administration, which is often glamorised. He also added that because the state spends on education, specialists are much more needed in their respective areas compared to administration, which is of a more generic nature.
