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| Does SSB intend to go Agha Ashraf Ali way? | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Aug 25: The Jammu and Kashmir Service Selection Board has issued a paid advertisement as a step towards transparency and making the general public aware about the various responsibilities of the Board and the criteria adopted by it for selecting candidates to government jobs in the State.
The intentions of the advertisement are well taken, but in the process of making its working transparent and people friendly, the authorities of the Board have made a very crucial disclosure.
The Board authorities have admitted that while allotting marks to the candidates during the interviews conducted by them, the Board allots marks to the candidates on a pro-rata basis which means the academic merit of the candidate is matched by his interview marks. In layman terms, the Board has conveyed the impression and also admitted that the interview committee gives marks to the candidates which are matched by their academic merit!
Why hold an interview at all if the purpose of the interview is merely to match the interview marks with the academic merit of the candidate? Doubts have always been expressed by the people about the sanctity of the marks allotted to candidates during interviews for various selections in the State. It is often argued that the influential candidates get more marks in the interviews for selections to various government jobs.
That is the general public perception about interviews conducted by various selecting authorities. But, the fact that interviews are a Worldwide phenomenon and accepted globally cannot and must not be ignored.
If the Service Selection Board admits that its sole objective of holding the interviews is to match the academic merit of the candidate with his interview marks, then it is time the Board mustered up the courage to dispense with the very practice of holding interviews for government jobs. Let the academic merit be the sole criterion for determining the worth of a candidate to get into the government service. If the interview is a mere formality to match the academic merit with the marks allotted by the members of the interview committee, then the whole exercise is supercilious and futile.
One is reminded of Dr. Agha Ashraf Ali, the renowned scholar and academician of the State. During his tenure as the chairman of the Board of Professional Entrance Examinations (BOPEE), then known as the Competent Authority Entrance Examinations, Agha decided to dispense with the practice of interviewing the candidates for various professional courses like the MBBS, BDS, Engineering etc.
His decision was challenged and the State High Court held that the chairman of BOPEE does not have the authority to change the laid down procedure of selection. Agha Ashraf Ali later allotted all the 15 marks which had been reserved for interviews of the candidates to each and every candidate. Thus, the net effect of the interview which carried only 15 marks was neutralized by the chairman of the BOPEE.
This was again challenged in the court, but the second time the court ruled that the decision to dispense with the interview did not wrest with the chairman of BOPEE, but his discretion to allot marks to candidates in the interview could not be challenged.
The wise Agha had dispensed and discarded the practice of interview in his own novel way by allotting all the 15 marks the interview carried to all the appearing candidates.
Thus those selected for the various courses made it simply on the basis of their merit in the common entrance test. The interview had been annulled in a novel manner by a legendary academician. After two years of Agha's bold initiative in 1989, the BOPEE dispensed with conducting interviews of the candidates with effect from 1991. The merit obtained in the entrance test conducted by the BOPEE finally became the sole criterion for a candidate's selection.
Does the Service Selection Board intend to go the Agha Ashraf Ali way? Do they have the courage and the authority to do that? Only a clarification from the Board would tell. |
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