Prayagraj: Over one-third of the applicants of Combined State Upper Subordinate Services-(preliminary) examination, commonly known as PCS (pre) skip the prestigious exams responsible for recruitment for various state govt jobs, reveals data. The data comes at a time when the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission ( UPPSC ) is planning to conduct the PCS (pre) for 5,76,154 applicants for the 2024 edition through a two-day exam schedule to prevent paper leak. Officials are of the view that undertaking the mammoth exercise can be made much more effective if only those "serious aspirants" appear for the exam.
They assert that such a scenario would enable the commission to conduct a more transparent examination while utilising fewer resources and incurring lower expenses. "Keeping in mind the concept of a welfare state, the commission has kept the application fee for candidates at a maximum of Rs 225," said a senior UPPSC official. "Consequently, a significant number of candidates who lack seriousness or certainty about appearing in the examination also apply, resulting in not just thousands, but lakhs of candidates being absent on the examination day," said official.
Data indicates that between 2018 and 2023, more than one-third of the candidates have skipped the PCS (pre) examination. In the PCS (pre)-2021, out of 6,91,173 applicants, more than half (3,69,900), did not appear for the examination. Similarly, in the 2020 test, out of 5,95,696 applicants, only about half, (3,14,69.