BENGALURU: Forced by rising costs of private coaching for competitive examinations, the state minority welfare department had launched a free residential coaching programme last December for aspirants of Indian Administrative Services (IAS) and Karnataka Administrative Services (KAS). Now, less than a year in, 55 students from religious minority communities have secured government jobs across various sectors.
The initiative provided 10 months of intensive training to select candidates. Of the 3,300 applicants who appeared for entrance examinations across 19 centres across the state, 400 were chosen. Officials from the department highlighted that this model not only improves accessibility, but also allows better monitoring of students compared to the earlier stipend-based support.
Directorate of Minorities Assistant Director Anjanappa S told TNIE that for many years, the department assisted aspirants with monthly stipends for the basic preparation.
The students selected through the examination were sent to coaching institutions in New Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, with the government bearing their tuition fee. However, failing to oversee the aspirants, the department decided to come up with the residential coaching free of cost.
This academic year will have two batches, with 150 students for KPSC and UPSC each, Directorate of Minorities Director Jeelani H Mokashi said, adding that the process of the examination has been modified too, with objective papers brought in and negative marks allotted for each wrong answer.
The director also said the new batch consisting of 300 students is expected to begin in December or January.
Directorate of Minorities Joint Director Shashi Kumar Gowda said while one of the aspirants succeeded in clearing the UPSC preliminary examination, many more notifications are yet to be out. The KAS re-examination is scheduled for December this year, and the department is expecting a 50% success rate from the first batch.