Question

The Society for Education in India (in short SEI) had been engaged in running primary schools in different parts of the country since the 1950s. While attending a conference on employee selection, Mr J. Mehta, a senior member of the society, learned that a leading school had recently employed a psychologist to perform employment functions, i.e., recruitment and selection of teachers. Within two months of his return, Mr J. Mehta contacted a reputed university and employed a graduating psychologist, Mr Bibek Gupta.

Mr Bibek Gupta was employed by SEI with the single directive that he was to contribute to the selection of teachers. This task had previously been the prerogative of the principals of each school. Mr Gupta immediately notified each principal that in future he was to be notified of the personnel needs, and in return he would recruit, screen, and select the teachers.

At the end of his first year with SEI, Mr Gupta realized that his efforts had resulted in failure. During his first few months he encountered much opposition from several principals who had been managing schools for ten or more years. They did not believe in newer psychological techniques and preferred selecting people based on their own assessment. Other principals frequently refused to accept the teachers selected by Mr Gupta. Finally, Mr Gupta began to notice fewer and fewer principals notifying him of vacancies in their schools. Realizing that he was not making any effective contribution, Mr Gupta submitted the suggestion to the society members that support and co-operation of the school principals should be a matter of executive order, or else his resignation should be considered.

Directions: For each question below, an answer (A) and a reason (R) are given. Base your analysis only on the information in the passage above. Mark your response using the code:
1. if both A and R are based on information given in the passage, and R is the correct explanation of A.
2. if both A and R are based on information given in the passage, but R is not the correct explanation of A.
3. if A is based on information given in the passage, but R is not based on the facts given.
4. if A is not based on information given in the passage, but R is based on the information given in the passage.
5. if both A and R are not based on information given in the passage.

Question: What responsibilities were shouldered by Mr Bibek in his first year of employment?
A: Mr Bibek had the responsibility of contributing his expertise to recruitment and selection of teachers.
R: The board members wanted to systematize the recruitment and selection of the entire organization.

• A. Both A and R are based on information given in the passage, and R is the correct explanation of A.
• B. Both A and R are based on information given in the passage, but R is not the correct explanation of A.
• C. A is based on information given in the passage, but R is not based on the facts given.
• D. A is not based on information given in the passage, but R is based on the information given in the passage.

Hint:

Check A and R separately against the passage before deciding if R explains A; watch for details R adds that the passage never states.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

This question checks whether statement A and reason R are each backed by facts in the SEI passage, and if R truly explains A.

1. Checking A: The passage says Mr Bibek Gupta "was employed by SEI with the single directive that he was to contribute to the selection of teachers." This is exactly what A claims, so A is fully supported by the passage.
2. Checking R: R claims that "the board members wanted to systematize the recruitment and selection of the entire organization." The passage never mentions a decision by "board members" acting together, and it never says the goal was to systematize recruitment for the entire organization. What actually happened is that one person, Mr J. Mehta, learned about a psychologist at another school and on his own initiative arranged for SEI to hire Mr Gupta. Also, Gupta's brief was limited to teacher selection, not the whole organization's recruitment process. So R brings in facts the passage does not support.
3. Matching to the code: A is based on the passage, but R is not based on the facts given. That matches code 3, not code 1 or 2 (which need R to also be passage based), and not code 4 (which needs A to be unsupported instead of R).

So the correct code is: A is based on the passage, but R is not.

Let's summarize:

• A restates a fact stated directly in the passage, that Gupta's single directive was teacher selection.
• R invents an unstated actor ("board members") and an unstated scope ("entire organization"), so it fails the passage based test.

The answer is option 3.