Bangladesh Civil Service, or BCS, is currently one of the most alluring names for career seekers. The BCS exam is available to those who have completed a four-year bachelor’s degree up until the age of 30. It is 32 years old in specific circumstances. But which age group of candidates is more likely to pass the exam and be recommended for the job?
The annual report of Bangladesh Public Service Commission (PSC) for the year 2023 was presented in the parliament on Thursday (2 May 2024). The first and second class (currently the identity of the job is based on grade instead of class) appointments in government jobs are made through the PSC.
In the PSC report, various data of the 41st and 43rd BCS examinations were presented. It shows that candidates in the age group of 23-25 years have received the most final recommendations in the 41st BCS. That is, they have passed the three stages of the BCS examination – preliminary, written and oral examination.
Among those recommended for jobs by the PSC in the 41st BCS, 39.90% were 23-25 years old and 27.94% of the recommended people were 25-27 years old. The age group of 21-23 years was 19.44%. Older candidates were less likely to be recommended in that batch. Among those recommended, the 27-29 age group accounted for 11.5%. The lowest recommendation was received by candidates over 29 years of age, 1.67%.
However, the majority of the applicants in that examination were 23-25 years old, 31.53% and the least among the applicants were those over 29 years of age, 5.20%.
The same picture was seen in the 43rd BCS. There were a total of 4,42,813 eligible applicants in the BCS. Most of them were 23-25 years old (32.01% of the total applicants). The lowest number of candidates was over 29 years of age, 4.85%.
The majority of those who were finally recommended for jobs in the 43rd BCS were in the age group of 23-25 years. 37.68% of those recommended were candidates in this age range. On the other hand, candidates over 29 years of age received the lowest recommendation, 1.71%. Among those recommended, 13.68% were in the 21-23 age group, 32.27% in the 25-27 age group and 14.66% in the 27-29 age group.
Between these two BCSs, the 42nd BCS was the Special BCS (Health). Among those recommended in the 42nd BCS, there were more candidates in the 25-27 age group, 38.38%. 27.48% of service recommendations were between the ages of 23 and 25.
According to the annual report of PSC, the highest number of candidates participated in the 41st and 43rd BCS from the humanities department. However, the majority of those who were finally recommended for jobs by the PSC were science students. In the 41st BCS, 36.21% of the recommended candidates were science students. In the 43rd BCS, it was 38.14%. However, the PSC report has shown engineering and medicine as separate departments. When these two departments are combined with the science department, it can be seen that more than 65% of the final recommendations in the two BCSs are students of the science department.
AKM Abdul Awal Majumder, former secretary and former rector of Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre, stated that, at the time of ICS, people used to enter the service at the age of 17-19. During the Pakistan period, the CSP exam could be taken up to 21-25 years of age. Because there were no session jams. After the independence of Bangladesh, the age for the first BCS exam was 21-27 years. It was made 21-30 years during the tenure of HM Ershad. Now the 23-25 year olds are passing more, because the session congestion in the universities has decreased. Another reason could be that many meritorious students are now inclined towards BCS, many of them are passing for the first time.
The former secretary said that during the Pakistan era, the students of the science department passed the CSP relatively more. During the Bangladesh period, the students of the humanities department were winners for a long time. But in the present scenario, science students are growing. That’s because now the students of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), medical, and science subjects of Dhaka University are more interested in BCS than ever before.