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CSAT 2024 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2024 · Question 22 · Reading comprehension

Which one of the following statements best reflects the central idea conveyed by the passage?

Directions for the following 3 (three) items: Read the following two passages and answer the items that follow the passages. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.

Passage—1

By the time children reach class 8, the bulk of them tend to be in the age range of 13 years to 15 years. But in our country, about a quarter of all children in class 8 struggle with reading simple texts and more than half are still unable to do basic arithmetic operations like division. Every year about 25 million young boys and girls from elementary school move into the life that lies for them beyond compulsory schooling. They cannot enter the workforce at least in the organized sector till they are 18. For many families, these children are the first from their families ever to get this far in school. Parents and children expect that such ‘graduates’ from school will go on to high school and college. Hardly anyone wants to go back to agriculture. On the other hand, abilities in terms of academic competencies are far lower than they should be even based on curricular expectations of class 8.

CSAT 2024 · Q22

Reading comprehension Medium

Which one of the following statements best reflects the central idea conveyed by the passage?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (c) Public policy should ensure that competencies and achievements of young people are aligned with their expectations.

The passage sets high expectations (high school, college, no return to farming) against low actual competencies. Its central concern is closing that gap, which is what option (c) says.

  • ✗ (a) Poverty is not discussed, and ‘total eradication … will resolve’ is an extreme claim the passage never makes.
  • ✗ (b) Monetary incentives to parents or teachers are not mentioned anywhere.
  • ✓ (c) Parents and children expect the ‘graduates’ to go on to high school and college, yet ‘abilities in terms of academic competencies are far lower than they should be’. Aligning competencies with expectations is the point the passage builds towards.
  • ✗ (d) The passage notes that hardly anyone wants to go back to agriculture, but it never says pass-outs should do so, and the demographic dividend is not mentioned.

Remember · The central idea usually joins the passage’s two halves; here, high expectations versus low competencies.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

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