CHENNAI: Taking serious note of the significant drop in the number of students from Tamil Nadu clearing the Civil Services Examinations, Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan has come up with an ambitious plan to reverse the trend.
Along with providing quality training, a monthly stipend will be provided by the state government to financially support and encourage students to prepare for the exams. Tamil Nadu Skill Development Corporation (TNSDC) will implement a scheme in coordination with Anna Staff Administrative College to help civil services aspirants to access better coaching facilities and materials.
Every year, 1,000 aspirants will be shortlisted through a screening test and each will be provided Rs 7,500 per month for 10 months and a lump sum of Rs 25,000 if they clear the prelims. For this, Rs 10 crore has been allocated to TNSDC.
For a state that boasts of a stellar gross enrolment ratio (GER) of 51.4% in higher education, which is twice the national average of 27.1%, the declining performance in civil services examination over the past few years has been a matter of concern among academicians.
Of the 685 candidates who cleared the exams in 2021, only 27 candidates were from Tamil Nadu. According to academicians, in 2014, 119 students from the state had qualified for UPSC and since then there has been a continuous decline in the number of qualifiers. Academicians feel the new initiative will be a big help for the aspirants. This year, the higher education department has got a budget allocation of Rs 6,967 crore, which is almost Rs 1,300 crore higher than last year.