BHUBANESWAR: Despite the free UPSC coaching for civil services aspirants failing to produce desired results, the state government has decided to continue it for one more year with some improvements in the teaching modules and then assess the outcome.
On the sidelines of a meeting with vice-chancellors of public universities here on Tuesday, Higher Education minister Suryabanshi Suraj said there have been suggestions from several quarters to stop the coaching programme owing to the poor results over the years. “But we have decided to make some changes in the programme now and continue it for the 2025-26 academic session to see the results. One of the changes that has been proposed is roping in IAS and OAS officers in the state for giving classes to the aspirants who are selected for the coaching,” he said.
The procedure to select aspirants for the free coaching, however, remains the same. Every year, 200 youths (General - 95, ST-45, SC-32, SEBC-23, PwD-5) are selected through a pre-qualifying examination for the coaching - both prelims and mains. While the government funds the entire coaching expenditure, students are provided free hostel facilities at Centurion University. A private coaching centre is chosen for the purpose.
“What we have noticed from this free coaching programme is that the quality of coaching is good. However, the approach and mentality of students needs to be changed. We train them to qualify in IAS and OAS examinations but they aim for clearing SSB examinations. This is where the problem lies,” the minister observed.