For the first time in history, the most coveted tests in Pakistan to get elite jobs are being conducted twice this year — and the Catholic Church is gearing up for gains.
Prime Minister Imran Khan last month approved special Central Superior Services (CSS) exams to fill 188 vacancies in federal services carried over from the last few years. The annual exam is conducted in February to recruit bureaucrats to posts up to Grade 17.
The Federal Commission Public Service conducts the exam for services including commerce and trade, customs and excise, district management, foreign affairs, income tax, public information, military lands, office management, audit and accounts, police service, postal service and the railways.
Shahzad Arbab, special assistant to the premier at the Establishment Division, announced that a special CSS exam will be arranged in November or December. “We truly believe in giving equal opportunities to federating units and 39 seats for Punjab minorities,” he wrote on Twitter.
The special exam will be conducted under the same rules and procedures to fill the leftover posts from the quota system for students from underdeveloped regions. In 2009, the national government reserved a 5 percent job quota for minorities. However, human rights organizations claimed that most people from religious minorities were doing menial jobs.
Church reaction
According to Samuel Clement, executive secretary of Caritas Pakistan Multan (CPM), this is a golden opportunity for mainstream Christian students in underdeveloped areas.
“The Supreme Court has passed landmark rulings for religious minorities, but the challenge comes from the bureaucratic system which implements the laws of the state. Now our students have a better chance to make things right by becoming part of the system,” he told UCA News.
Clement was speaking on the sidelines of the June 13 inauguration of St. Peter's CSS Academy in Multan. CPM and Multan Diocese of Punjab province are managing the course to educate Christian youth. Some 75 candidates from Multan and surrounding cities have registered at the academy.
Parents and members of the diocesan commissions also attended the thanksgiving Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Redeemer. Bishop Benny Mario Travas, the main celebrant, encouraged students to work hard and uplift the community.
The CSS exam consists of four parts — a written examination, medical examination, psychological test and an oral test. Candidates must be aged 21-30 and have completed 14 years of education in post-primary school classes. The pass percentage of the exam was 2.56 percent last year.
The latest trend started last year when Archbishop Joseph Arshad of Islamabad-Rawalpindi inaugurated a six-month preparatory course for 50 young Catholics at St. Mary’s Cambridge School. A CSS preparatory course is offered by private academies at a cost of 70,000 rupees (US$424). The Church charges 1,500 rupees besides providing textbooks, teaching materials and related items.
As the first batch awaits the result expected in September, the northern diocese has already begun online exams for recruitment of the second batch.
“The selection criteria require a graduate (grade-14 degree holder), preferably those with a master’s degree. The written exam was waived due to the coronavirus pandemic. We shall follow all standard operating procedures issued by the government,” said Father Sarfraz Simon, coordinator of St Mary's CSS Academy.
The education dilemma
Educational institutions across the country will remain closed for the next three weeks amid the novel coronavirus outbreak that has affected 148,921 in Pakistan with 2,839 deaths.
Church-run CSS academies are part of the Year of Youth 2020 inaugurated by the Pakistan Catholic Bishops’ Conference at a Mass at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Lahore in November 2019. The bishops stressed the importance of education and a revival of the role of youth in Church leadership.
Christian Missionary Schools are popular in the Muslim-majority country for their discipline and higher learning. A photo of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is emblazoned among other high-profile alumni of St. Anthony’s High School adjacent to the Catholic Cathedral of Lahore.
Educationists and activists cite anti-Christian discrimination and poverty as the two main obstacles for religious minority. Illiteracy is a huge problem among young Christian boys who have a cultural responsibility to provide for their families or raise money for a dowry so that their sisters can marry, they say.
According to the Catholic bishops' National Council for Justice and Peace, the average literacy rate among Christians was 34 percent in 2001.
In 2016, Lahore-based educational NGO Starfish Pakistan conducted a survey of 604 schools among the poorest Christians in 23 districts of Punjab, Islamabad and Karachi. Over a third of these schools are associated with Catholic or Protestant churches.
The "For a Better World" survey offers an insight into teachers at these schools. Sixty-one percent of teachers have only studied to intermediate level (grade 12) or below, 39 percent have a bachelors’ or master’s degree, while 3,374 teachers have no professional qualifications.
In April, Punjab’s government for the first time set a 2 percent quota for non-Muslims at universities under its Punjab Minorities Empowerment Package in a measure long sought by Pakistani activists. Christians are the largest non-Muslim minority in Punjab and make up 2.6 percent of the province’s population of 110 million, according to the 2017 national census.
Catholic professor Anjum James Paul, chairman of the Pakistan Minorities Teachers' Association, praised church-run CSS academies but criticized the selection criteria for both students and teachers.
“Only those holding a master’s degree should be trained for at least two years and affiliated with major public libraries. Only officers must teach officers. The graduates have no chance at all,” he said.
“The academies show the Church's care for the youth but the leaders must facilitate them accordingly. These initiatives should be institutionalized instead of depending on the good will of the bishop.”