THOOTHUKUDI: The results of the Civil Services Examination released by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Thursday which saw only 60 students from Tamil Nadu emerging successful reveals that performance of the state this time has been dismal compared to the previous years.
According to experts performance is poor in terms of quantity as well as quality. For, not only the number of candidates selected has decreased but also the number of IAS and IPS from the state.
“The total number of selected candidates witnessed a decrease compared to the previous years. While 97 out of a total 998 students had cleared in 2012 examination, this time only 60 out of 1,122 were able to emerge successful in 2013 examination,” says Senthil Kumar, Director, TIMES IAS Coaching Centre, Chennai.
The main reason he attributes for this is the new pattern introduced in the Main examination. The changes included the printing of questions in the answer booklet effectively restricting the space for answers.
However, in his view, though students from TN were not able to cope up with the change now, they would adapt themselves and perform better in the coming years.
Earlier, students were given ample space to present their views and the only form of restriction was the number of words. But in 2013, the restriction came in the form of space which required students to have adequate preparation well in advance. As a result, students with the habit of large handwriting suffered.
Experts also pointed out that even the number of IAS candidates selected this year from TN had come down mainly due to the sharp fall in the number of rank holders in the top 100. Last year, a candidate from TN secured sixth rank in the final list and came first in the State. But, this year Jeyaseelan who secured 45th rank in the final list was the first.
According to Senthil Kumar only five candidates have the chance of getting into IAS in 2013 while in the previous years more than 10 students were selected.
The only relief to Tamil Nadu comes in the form of a visually challenged girl securing 343rd rank in the final list.