ASSAMESE STUDENTS AND THE CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATION  

         The proper functioning of a country and society depends upon an effective and competent administration. Administration is the arrangement, management and direction of human and material resource of a state. Though practically no country can be a utopian one, but the conglomerate of a good government and a good administration can lead a country to the better side. A proper administration can be achieved only if it is run by a group of educated and skilled professionals. These people are called bureaucrats, who hold higher government insignia. They implement government policies at various levels maintaining sticky coordination with government. Functioning government embedded with a competent administration is the well known secret of the developed countries. These people are decorated with executive power along with the sense of heavy responsibility. The selection of these people is being carried out by central agency called UPSC, which has the authority to conduct the prestigious civil service examination of India to pick up young, dynamic and exuberant young talents. Every year a number of aspiring lad and ladies make their giant steps to the most coveted services of our country like IAS, IPS, IFS etc. But due to the large number of applicant the success rate in this examination is very less may be less than 0.01 % approximately.

       If we go through the trend of past years result, it is noticeable that the bulk of successful candidates hails from states like Bihar, Tamilnadu ,UP and Andhra. Their dominance over various civil services are quite consistent. The intelligentsias of those state has cemented the suitable environment which is the prerequisite to crack the hurdle of the examination. On the contrary a very microscopic amount of students from our region has made it till now.

       Since old days our parents have been playing the big role of flavoring the dreams of our students with engineering and medical courses. Even now the number of UPSC aspiring Assamese students is very small .Candidly speaking our education atmosphere has not allowed us to think beyond the traditional jobs of engineer and doctors. The main pejorative effect of this is that, the layer of the meritorious students is being absorbed by the professional courses. After completion of these courses, they usually get lucrative jobs in governmental or private sector. Once they get into it, time hardly allow them to think and prepare for the UPSC examination. Eventually various responsibilities come in their way and when they realize age factor does not allow them to sit in the examination.

          There is a putative notion amongst us that civil service examination is beyond the capability of our students, since it is very   tough. Indeed it is, but we are from the fact that a systematic approach, hard cum smart work ease this tough job. We have profuse amount of youngsters with tremendous caliber. The syllabus of the examination is quite vast, but an inquisitive mind and extensive study will help the student to overcome the hurdle.

           Our government has to take initiative to encourage our students to appear in this examination and to join these prestigious services. Though some steps have been taken, they are not sufficient. Government can arrange free or non-profit based coaching to aspirants; it will be helpful for economically backward students who cannot afford costly coaching in outer cities like Delhi. Unavailability of quality study material and lack of proper guidance are the two areas, where we have to put our eyes. The market of pre-engineering and pre-medical test is beefed up in last few years, but the same for civil service examination is growing in a very languid manner. Nevertheless of these drawbacks a few number of north-eastern students has made us proud by stepping their feet in these royal jobs. The year of 2009 gave us the most outstanding result of N-E students in the civil service examination. A total number of 21,including 11 from Assam passed this examination with flying colors in that year.

              Due to the miniature quantity of successful student from Assam, our state is not properly represented at the higher governmental ranks. We have to work hard with strong perseverance to create an environment which will be favorable for our aspiring pupils who want to join administrative services. The pioneer of higher education of our region mainly Guwahati and Dibrugarh university also have to put emphasis on their curriculum and methodology which will shape our graduates to develop required skills to pass the examination. The white color status of these jobs is attracting thousands of young minds from all over country. We are optimistic that our state will also produce some good civil servants in coming years who will serve our state in a more committed manner.