Discontinue English weightage practice in UPSC: Chouhan to PM

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discontinue the practice followed by the UPSC, wherein marks scored by civil services aspirants in English are taken into consideration before arriving at the final tally.
In a letter to Singh, the chief minister termed as "anti- people and unnecessary" the practice of adding marks scored by UPSC aspirants in English language paper to their grand total in the prelims and main examination results, and demanded that the same be done away with.
"The practice of adding marks obtained in English to grand total of UPSC exam results is not only an attack on the morale of students but also affects future prospects of aspirants from rural and tribal areas and that of aspirants living in urban slums and the urban poor and middle class youths," the chief minister said.

A copy of the letter was made available to media by the Chief Minister's Office today.
Chouhan said a number of youths belonging to these sections have made it to the IAS, the IPS, the IFS and other allied services due to their extraordinary talent.
He said these youths could not compete with other aspirants whose English language skills are at par with international standards.

Higher-level English medium schools could not be established in rural and urban areas due to administrative weakness, Chouhan said.
"But innocent youths are being punished for this even when they are not responsible for this, rather they have become victims," the chief minister said.

Chouhan said it was wrong to assume that 100 marks, earmarked for English, out of total of 2075 marks, do not play significant role in civil services exam.