Editor,

I wish to express my concern over the recently notified recruitment test (RT) pattern for FAO/TO and STO.

The written examination offers four optional subjects – commerce, economics, statistics, and mathematics. However, making commercial mathematics the sole recruitment test paper places commerce and economics graduates at a clear disadvantage, while candidates from mathematics and statistics backgrounds enjoy a distinct advantage due to their stronger quantitative training.

This is unfair for a service primarily dealing with finance, accounts, auditing, budgeting, and economics.

For other technical posts, such as agriculture development officer (ADO) and horticulture development officer (HDO), APPSC rightly conducts the recruitment test in the candidates’ respective core subjects. The same principle should apply to FAO/TO and STO. Commerce candidates should be tested in commerce, economics candidates in economics, statistics candidates in statistics, and mathematics candidates in mathematics. There is no justification for prescribing only commercial mathematics, which clearly favours mathematics and statistics optionals.

Alternatively, the APPSC should reconsider the RT pattern and adopt a balanced model similar to the assistant engineer (AE) recruitment test, where general awareness was included along with the technical subject. Such a pattern would provide a more level playing field for candidates from all eligible disciplines.

There is also a growing perception among aspirants that under the present team of the APPSC, recruitment patterns increasingly favour science and mathematics backgrounds, even for posts where commerce and economics are the core disciplines. The recent abnormally high marks in the optional subjects of science subjects of APPSCCE 2024 are testimony to that. The commission should ensure that recruitment truly reflects the nature of the post and provides equal opportunity to all eligible candidates.

I sincerely hope that the APPSC will review the present RT pattern and introduce general awareness along with commercial maths.

A concerned FAO/TO & STO aspirant