UPDATES ON UPSC CIVIL SERVICES PRELIMS 2020 EXAM: WILL IT BE POSTPONED?

Union Public Service Commission, UPSC conducts Civil Services Examination, every year to recruit candidates for vacancies of IAS, IPS, IRS, IFS and other central posts in Group A, B posts.

Lakhs of serious and dedicated Aspirants, like yourself, will have started their preparation months or years ahead. This year, the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary examination is supposed to be conducted on May 31, 2020.

Many aspirants and Coaching institutes are speculating as to whether the exam will be conducted on the notified date.

With just about 6 weeks to go for the Preliminary exam, most students are still wondering if the exam will be conducted at all on 31st May 2020. The only source of information that can put their minds at ease is the clarification from UPSC itself.

Here’s what the UPSC said latest: ‘Too early to take a call’

The UPSC, officially, is yet to take a call on the issue.

“It is still too early to decide on postponement. Right now, the commission is working with the bare minimum strength…The officials even go to the office on rotation, so there is no decision on postponement of the exam.” a senior UPSC official has said to a News Agency (ThePrint), on the condition of anonymity.

According to a DoPT official, once the lockdown is lifted, the commission will be in a better position to gauge the situation. He said:

“The exam will be postponed if there is a need, but right now with more than a month to go for the exam, it is still too early to say if that kind of a need will arise…The government will keep candidates in the loop,” he said.

Clarification sought

UPSC responded to several calls and the same issue being raised by Veteran Congress leader Mr. Shashi Tharoor. Last week, he had tweeted that he had a deluge of messages/queries. He also brought to the fore the same point and asked Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh to clarify on the postponement/re-scheduling issue

The Congress MP quoted “Each year about 9 lakh students appear for the coveted UPSC exams to join the prestigious civil services. But so far no aspirant has a clue whether the Preliminary exam will go ahead as scheduled on May 31st or be postponed. @DrJitendraSingh please clarify, am deluged w/queries!”

Youtube Link- Updates: Will UPSC Prelims 2020 be postponed?

Petitions seeking re-scheduling

Several aspirants are running online petitions to urge the government to postpone the exam. According to them, most of the students had travelled some distance to take up classes in some Best IAS coaching across India, stayed at hostels or PGs. Now, with the lockdown, they have had to vacate the place and return home. This has greatly hampered their preparation

Here’s a petition from Change.org:

We, the aspirants, support our government and its efforts in tackling this pandemic. However, adequate attention must be paid to our issues as well

1. UPSC Prelims requires dedicated preparation of 3–4 months and looming uncertainty over extension of lockdown is hampering our preparation
2. As government declared lockdown without any warning, most of the us are at home with no access to Books, Study material etc.
3. Anxiety and stress is preventing us from performing at our best.
4. We feel our health is at risk if we are made to write exams during this pandemic
5. There is a high chance that some of us will be personally affected by COVID-19.
6. Some of our fellow aspirants are yet to appear for interviews and they will need sufficient time to prepare for prelims

Change.org Petition-Postpone UPSC CSE Prelims 2020 to August ’20 amidst COVID 19 pandemic

Let’s be Practical: Considering Lockdown till 3rd May

We have to think practically before we draw any inferences about the UPSC Prelims exam. Now that most states have extended the lockdown till 3rd May 2020, it is out of question for UPSC to conduct the Personality Interview/Test, which has been overdue, for the Successful UPSC Main Exam candidates.

1. Before the lockdown is lifted on May 3rd, UPSC will not put out a word on interviews. This means UPSC will send out a word in the first week of May, only after gauging the situation across the country.
2. The completion of Interviews would at least take a week, which means we have reached the end of 2nd week of May. Now remains the collation of data from the Main exam and Interview for each candidate, cross verifying the information, factoring in the categories-wise reservation to prepare a merit-list and then releasing the result.
3. All this would easily require a week’s time again, taking us to the end of 3rd week or further.
4. Now, it is anyone’s idea if the UPSC will be able to release all of the following in the last week: Final Merit list, Previous year’s Answer Keys for Prelims 2019, Scores of Successful Candidates, Unsuccessful Candidates in Main Exam and finally scores of all candidates who appeared in Prelims 2019 exam

The task looks herculean for the UPSC if it were to conduct the exam on scheduled date now. So, a Very High Probability of the UPSC CSE Preliminary exam 2020 might as well be postponed and re-scheduled.

More factors to consider

The unprecedented countrywide lockdown forced by COVID-19 has thrown up multifarious challenges to every Individual, including the candidates preparing for this exam. Even as the Central and State Governments run pillar to post to avert this crisis and bring the rising number of cases under control, conducting the Examination for the selection of a handful of candidates for the coveted Posts will be of a lesser concern at the present juncture.

Consider this: School exams in various states, CBSE and ICSE exams, Engineering and Medical College Exams etc,. (Listed below), which impact a much larger group of students have all been postponed. We are not talking about a “Competitive Exam” here, the reference is to the academic year. This points to the fact that the Governments are not willing to take the risk in any way. And the Governments are doing the right thing.

A Precursor

Even before you proceed any further, let us make it clear that there is a very high probability that the Exam will be postponed. The issue that begs the question now has to be about the next Official notification of UPSC clarifying about the examination. Given the extraordinary situation that has arisen in the face of COVID-19, many academic activities and exams have been postponed. A list of exams which have been postponed is provided even as you peruse this post.

To say that there is a high probability, our prediction has to be based on objective analysis of the events that have transpired in the recent past with respect to UPSC, as well as other examination conducting bodies.

Evidence: Has UPSC ever postponed the exam?

Answer is ‘Yes’. In fact, on multiple occasions.

1. UPSC Civil Service (Personality Test)-2019 postponed

Most recently, the UPSC has deferred Civil Service (Personality Test)-2019. Read following notification by UPSC:

Due to the prevailing conditions caused by the Novel Corona Virus (COVID-19), as a precautionary measure, the Personality Tests (Interviews) of the candidates of the Civil Services (Main) Examination, 2019 scheduled from 23rd March, 2020 to 3rd April, 2020 are deferred till further orders. New dates for the Personality Tests (Interviews) will be informed to the candidates in due course of time.

2. UPSC — NDA & NA (I) Exam 2020 postponed

UPSC NDA & NA (I) Exam 2020 has been Postponed due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown in entire country.

3. In 2015 and 2016, the UPSC Prelims was conducted in August month.

Which are the exams which are postponed due to COVID-19?

1. National Testing Agency (NTA) has postponed the ensuing NEET 2020 examination.
2. The NTA has also postponed the JEE (Main) April 2020 examination which was scheduled to be held on April 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th.
3. The Andhra Pradesh Class 10 or AP SSC exams have been postponed. The AP SSC Board Exams were scheduled to be held from March 31, 2020, to April 8, 2020.
4. The ongoing Meghalaya class 12 board exam 2020 have been postponed for an indefinite period as a precautionary measure in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
5. The Institute of chartered accountants of India, ICAI has postponed the CA exam which was scheduled to be held from May 2 to May 18.
6. The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India has postponed the preliminary examination for recruitment of Assistant Engineers — Civil/Electrical/Structural/ MEP and Assistant Architects and Recruitment of Assistant Administrative Officers (Specialist) scheduled to be held on April 4.
7. All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has postponed the AIIMS PG Entrance Examination for July 2020 session and AIIMS Professional/Final Examinations 2020 schedule to be held in the month of May 2020.

Detailed: Will the UPSC CSE Prelims 2020 also be postponed? By how many days will prelims 2020 be postponed?

The Country is already facing lockdown till 14th April. Many state governments, as well as experts, are requesting the central government to extend the lockdown period beyond that date. Government sources have indicated that the situation is a bit more complicated ever since the Tablighi Jamaat congregation led to a steep rise in coronavirus infections as well as fatality tally.

If Lockdown is further extended till 30th April and public transport remains closed till mid- May, 2020, then arises the problem of logistics for conducting the exam, at least in few pockets of the country. The COVID-19 cases curve is yet to flatten in India.

Recent update is that, Odisha will keep its educational institutions closed till mid-June (Read here). A few other states are expected to follow suit, especially the most affected states. In any case, the lockdown will now not be lifted from the entire country in a single go. It will be gradual one. And thus, at least few states will still be reeling under the deleterious effect of COVID-19. This again only hints at the very high possibility of UPSC CSE Prelims 2020 getting postponed. The probability of postponement will be in the range of 30–90 days.

Yet, Exercise Caution: It’s UPSC for God’s sake!!!

A befitting expansion for UPSC at times, Unpredictable Public Service Commission, might as well unfold. Therefore, until and unless UPSC itself announces the postponement of prelims 2020, nothing we say here matters. But, bear this in mind — you should continue your preparation as per the current plan or an adaptable plan if you have already stopped preparing or the preparation has been thrown off-track.

Surely, the decision is beyond our control and it’s all in the UPSC, analyzing the situations at present and the forecasts it makes for the coming days. Spending hours together on speculation would eat into your valuable time and put ideas into your head, which will not be very conducive for you to continue the preparation. In fact, some students might have already cut down the number of effective hours on studies with Postponement in mind. Well, if the exam does get postponed, the candidates who have slowed down their preparation pace will find it hard to get back into the thick of preparation, and thus will eventually lose out in the competition.

In conclusion

Apparently, being quarantined and staying indoors is not a new thing for an aspirant, as he would anyways stay “quarantined” as he enters the last lap of preparation (that is the last 3 months to prelims). In fact, one should embrace the fact that there’s altogether very less distraction than there was earlier. Moreover, it is the last leg of preparation (tests, current affairs, and the revision) that might get affected the most. Provided if one makes a proper plan for the remaining days, the entire scene will still be a WIN situation for anyone who thinks it’s not impossible at all.