CAT 2018 Slot 2 VARC Question & Solution

Reading ComprehensionMedium

Passage

Read the passage carefully and answer the questions given

Will a day come when India’s poor can access government services as easily as drawing cash from an ATM? . . . [N]o country in the world has made accessing education or health or policing or dispute resolution as easy as an ATM, because the nature of these activities requires individuals to use their discretion in a positive way. Technology can certainly facilitate this in a variety of ways if it is seen as one part of an overall approach, but the evidence so far in education, for instance, is that just adding computers alone doesn’t make education any better. . . .

The dangerous illusion of technology is that it can create stronger, top down accountability of service providers in implementation-intensive services within existing public sector organisations. One notion is that electronic management information systems (EMIS) keep better track of inputs and those aspects of personnel that are ‘EMIS visible’ can lead to better services. A recent study examined attempts to increase attendance of Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANMs) at clinics in Rajasthan, which involved high-tech time clocks to monitor attendance. The study’s title says it all: Band-Aids on a Corpse . . . e-governance can be just as bad as any other governance when the real issue is people and their motivation.
For services to improve, the people providing the services have to want to do a better job with the skills they have. A study of medical care in Delhi found that even though providers, in the public sector had much better skills than private sector providers their provision of care in actual practice was much worse.

In implementation-intensive services the key to success is face-to-face interactions between a teacher, a nurse, a policeman, an extension agent and a citizen. This relationship is about power. Amartya Sen’s . . . report on education in West Bengal had a supremely telling anecdote in which the villagers forced the teacher to attend school, but then, when the parents went off to work, the teacher did not teach, but forced the children to massage his feet. . . . As long as the system empowers providers over citizens, technology is irrelevant.

The answer to successfully providing basic services is to create systems that provide both autonomy and accountability. In basic education for instance, the answer to poor teaching is not controlling teachers more . . . The key . . . is to hire teachers who want to teach and let them teach, expressing their professionalism and vocation as a teacher through autonomy in the classroom. This autonomy has to be matched with accountability for results—not just narrowly measured through test scores, but broadly for the quality of the education they provide.

A recent study in Uttar Pradesh showed that if, somehow, all civil service teachers could be replaced with contract teachers, the state could save a billion dollars a year in revenue and double student learning. Just the additional autonomy and accountability of contracts through local groups—even without complementary system changes in information and empowerment—led to that much improvement. The first step to being part of the solution is to create performance information accessible to those outside of the government. . . .

Question 1

According to the author, service delivery in Indian education can be improved in all of the following ways EXCEPT through:

access to information on the quality of teaching.

elimination of government involvement.

recruitment of motivated teachers.

use of technology.

Solution:

In the last line of the passage, the author mentions about the availability of information which should be the first step towards solving the service delivery in the Indian education system.
In the penultimate paragraph, the author says that the key is to hire those teachers who want to teach. In other words, the author supports the recruitment of motivated teachers.
In the first paragraph, the author states that technology can facilitate better service delivery in Indian education.
The author has nowhere talked about the elimination of government involvement. He wants that the autonomy and accountability of the teachers should be increased.
Hence, option B is the correct answer.

Question 2

In the context of the passage, we can infer that the title “Band Aids on a Corpse” (in paragraph 2) suggests that:

the nurses attended the clinics, but the clinics were ill-equipped.

the clinics were better funded, but performance monitoring did not result in any improvement.

the nurses who attended the clinics were too poorly trained to provide appropriate medical care.

the electronic monitoring system was a superficial solution to a serious problem.

Solution:

The author has explained the phrase “Band Aids on a Corpse” by stating that " e-governance can be just as bad as any other governance when the real issue is people and their motivation." From this, we can infer that the solution was not intended to tackle the real cause of the problem which was the motivation of the people. If people are not motivated, forcing them to come on time will act only as a specious way to deal with the issue.
Hence, option D is the correct answer.

Question 3

The author questions the use of monitoring systems in services that involve face-to-face interaction between service providers and clients because such systems:

do not improve services that need committed service providers.

are ineffective because they are managed by the government.

improve the skills but do not increase the motivation of service providers.

are not as effective in the public sector as they are in the private sector.

Solution:

In the third paragraph, the author has given the example of a school where the villagers forced the teachers to come to school, but the teacher instead of teaching indulged in various other non-productive activities. Further, the author also mentions that as long as the system empowers providers over citizens, technology is irrelevant.
So, the author wants to convey that commitment and motivation are the primary requirements in systems which involve face-to-face interaction between service providers and clients. Therefore, using technology to monitor in such scenarios will be ineffective.
Hence, option A is the correct answer.

Question 4

The main purpose of the passage is to:

argue that some types of services can be improved by providing independence and requiring accountability.

analyse the shortcomings of government-appointed nurses and their management through technology.

critique the government’s involvement in educational activities and other implementation-intensive services.

find a solution to the problem of poor service delivery in education by examining different strategies.

Solution:

The author has explained in the passage that without increasing the autonomy and accountability of the person involved in a job, monitoring systems will be ineffective in improving the services. So, the author has advocated for making the persons more responsible and give them more independence. Option A is the most relevant in this context.
Option B is narrow in the sense that the passage does not only focus on the case of nurses.
Option C is irrelevant as the author does not criticize the involvement of government.
Option D is incorrect because the author is not trying to find a solution, but he has proposed a solution to deal with the problem.
Hence, option A is the correct answer.

Question 5

Which of the following, IF TRUE, would undermine the passage’s main argument?

If it were proven that increase in autonomy of service providers leads to an exponential increase in their work ethic and sense of responsibility.

If it were proven that service providers in the private sector have better skills than those in the public sector.

Empowerment of service providers leads to increased complacency and rigged performance results.

If absolute instead of moderate technological surveillance is exercised over the performance of service providers.

Solution:

The author has argued in the passage and proposed some ways to increase productivity and to make the systems more effective. Option C which states "Empowerment of service providers leads to increased complacency and rigged performance results." will undermine the author's main argument because if empowerment of the service providers leads to rigged performance results, the whole purpose will be defeated.
Option A supports the passage's main idea.
Option B is irrelevant.
Option D does not talk about the effect of implementing absolute surveillance on the performance of service providers.
Hence, option C is the correct answer.