HYDERABAD: With the change in the pattern of the Civil Services Examination (CSE) coming into effect from this year onwards, the thriving IT sector seems to be threatened with an increasing number of IT professionals signing up for the coaching classes in search of a career offering more certainty. It has also set the cash registers ringing at the coaching centres in the city.
The changed syllabus, with its proposed Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) in place of the existing Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, puts students with an engineering and mathematics background at an advantage. As a result, the IAS coaching centres across the city have seen a jump of 10 to 15 per cent candidates in the last few months, mostly students and professionals with an engineering or IT background.
The proposal for syllabus change for the preliminary examinations was approved last year. The candidates will now have to appear for two objective- type papers designed to test their ‘aptitude for civil services’ as well as zero in on their ‘ethical and moral dimension of decision-making’.
“The change in the syllabus essentially means an advantage for people with a background in engineering, IT and mathematics as it involves more of statistics, logic and diagrams.
While candidates with these backgrounds were almost 70 per cent earlier, the percentage has risen to 90 per cent.” said Kishan Reddy, chairman of Gandhi IAS Study Circle at SR Nagar.
“Also a majority of professionals working in software companies with an experience of over six to seven years are no longer interested in the industry due to job uncertainty and are now aspiring for the civil services,” he said.
The new syllabus also spells trouble for students coming from rural areas. It has become difficult for these candidates to attempt CSAT without undergoing training. “The change in syllabus is disadvantageous to rural students. Although the number of such students coming for coaching is increasing, the ones who cannot afford to pay for the coaching, will be left out,” said Upen Kumar, a civil service aspirant from Ashok Nagar.
Incidentally, the city attracts the maximum number of aspirants for the Civil Service Examinations after Delhi and has areas like Ashoknagar, Domalguda and Gandhinagar which are a hub of IAS coaching centres.
Source : Indian Express