NATURE 



26^ 



THURSDAY, JULY 17, 1890. 



THE INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE AND THE 

 INDIAN FOREST SERVICE COMPETITIONS. 



THOSE who devote attention to educational questions 

 are looking with interest for the publication of the 

 new schedule for the Indian Civil Service competitions. 

 But past experience of the Civil Service Commissioners, 

 who are largely responsible for these matters, and on whom 

 the various departments must chiefly rely for the carrying 

 out of their ideas, causes the interest of many of us 

 to be not unmixed with a considerable degree of anxiety 

 lest there should be in this case a repetition of the recent 

 Woolwich and Sandhurst fiascos. Therefore, notwith- 

 standing the favourable character of Sir John Gorst's 

 recent reply to Sir Henry Roscoe, we hope that those 

 at the Universities who are interested in the question, 

 and the leaders in science, will not yet rest upon their 

 oars, but that they will bring under the direct notice of the 

 authorities at the India Office the present position of 

 science studies at the Universities and the views that are 

 held there on this important subject, in order that the 

 latter, who we believe hold fair views upon the subject, 

 may be in a position to judge of the fitness of any scheme 

 that may be submitted to them and of its correspondence 

 or the reverse with the present condition of higher 

 education. We bring this subject again under the 

 notice of our readers, partly because of its importance, 

 and partly because in the new regulations for the 

 India Forest Service we have recently been afforded 

 a fresh example of the inability of those who are 

 officially intrusted with these matters to properly esti- 

 mate the requirements of the public services. These new 

 regulations are, no doubt, better than those which they are 

 intended to replace in several respects, notably so in that 

 the absurd list of fourteen compulsory subjects by which 

 this examination has hitherto been distinguished has now 

 been abolished, and also in that the examinations will now 

 run somewhat closely on the lines of the army competi- 

 tion — a change which will probably secure for them a 

 wider field of candidates than they have hitherto had. 

 But, considered as a method of selecting those who are 

 most likely to do good work in a scientific profession, 

 the scheme must be pronounced to be a failure, since it 

 will neither insure the selection of the most promising 

 men for the particular service required of them, nor, as 

 many will think, encourage those who intend to compete 

 to give themselves a really liberal education. 



The subjects and their mark values are as set out below : 



Class I. — Obligatory Subjects. 



1. Mathematics, Elementary ... 2500 



2. English Composition 1000 



3. German ... ... ... ... 2000 



Class II.— Optional Subjects. 



4. Mathematics, Higher 2000 



5. French 2000 



6. Latin 2000 



7. Greek 2000 



8. English History 20CO ) 



9. Botany 2000 



10. Chemistry 2000 



11. Physics 2000 



12. Physical Geography and Geology 2000 y 



NO. 108 1, VOL. 42] 



Not less than 

 one - third of 

 full marks in 

 each of these 

 subjects must 

 be obtained to 

 qualify. 



Any two, but 

 not more than 

 two, of these 

 subjects may 

 be selected. 



Class III.— Additional Subjects. 



13. Freehand Drawing ... 500 ^ ^^^^f °"^ ^^f^A^^Tl 

 ,. r'^ «._:„„! T-> • - „ ^ be taken up in addition to 



14. Geometrical Drawing 300 ) j^ose in Classes L and H. 



A close inspection of the scheme reveals at once certain 

 serious objections to it. In the first place, whilst admit- 

 ting that the authorities have done well to provide fairer 

 opportunities for students whose education has been 

 largely in literature, we must claim, both in the interests 

 of the service and of the candidates, that those who seek 

 admission as probationers for so essentially scientific a 

 service ought in every case to be required to show some 

 moderate degree of capacity for scientific work before 

 they are admitted to their professional studies. The 

 Professors at Cooper's Hill are men of the highest stand- 

 ing, and they will undoubtedly give an excellent train- 

 ing to all who are fitted to undergo it. But they can- 

 not create scientific aptitude in those who are intrusted 

 to them. Hence, if men who are deficient in the 

 proper qualities are selected as probationers, either the 

 service or the probationers must suffer ; for it must 

 happen, either that the scientific standard of some of 

 those who are finally selected will be unduly low, or else 

 that some probationers who ought never to have been 

 selected will be finally rejected after much loss of time 

 and much expenditure in money. To show how real this 

 objection to the scheme is, it is only necessary to point 

 out that under the new scheme a candidate may offer 

 himself for examination in the following subjects with 

 every reason to hope for success : — Elementary mathe- 

 matics, English composition, German, Latin, Greek^ 

 drawing. We do not think that the staunchest up- 

 holders of the study of literature will support this selec- 

 tion of subjects as one by means of which a satisfactory 

 judgment of the fitness of the candidates for a scientific 

 profession can be made. It is plain that a young man 

 who shows ability in these subjects may or may not have 

 a reasonable degree of scientific aptitude also. 



On the other hand, many will think that the new scheme 

 permits even too great a neglect of literary studies on 

 the part of those candidates whose bent is for science, 

 since several combinations such as the following would 

 also be possible:— Elementary mathematics, English 

 composition, German, chemistry, physics. We are sure 

 that many advocates of science teaching will feel that 

 in this group of subjects literature is too much neglected ; 

 and we believe that a youth of nineteen or thereabouts 

 might add to it another modern language, or some know- 

 ledge of Latin, with advantage to his studies in mathe- 

 matics and science, as well as to his general education. 



In connection with this question, too, it must be re- 

 membered that candidates are practically compelled by 

 the severity of these competitions to stick to those sub- 

 jects in which they are most likely to compete suc- 

 cessfully, for a long period, often for several years, 

 beforehand. So that, for example, a young man who is 

 only moderately good at science and rather better at 

 languages will be most likely to win a place in this scien- 

 tific service by neglecting all scientific reading up to the 

 age of nineteen or twenty years ! Surely this is an 

 example of how not to do it ! 



It seems to us, therefore, that the proposed scheme 

 for the India Forests Department imperatively requires 



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