CHENNAI: Bagging 107th rank, Gee Gee AS, a resident of Perambur in Chennai, emerged as the state topper in the much-coveted union civil services exam, the results of which were announced on Tuesday.
R Ramakrishnasamy of Thiruvengadam in Tenkasi came second in the state securing 117th rank.
However, the academicians have termed the state’s performance as the worst in the last decade as none from the state managed to figure in the top 100 rank list.
“Every year, we have at least three to four candidates in the top 100. Last year, our students were in the top 50 but this year, the results are really worrisome,” said S Boominathan, managing director of KingMakers IAS Academy.
Though there is no state-wise official figure of the CSE qualifiers from Tamil Nadu, data compiled by former IAS officers and coaching centres reveal that out of 933 successful candidates, whose results were announced by UPSC, only 39 students (4%) are from the state.
In 2014, of the 1,126 candidates who cleared the exam, 119 (11%) were from Tamil Nadu, and since then there has been a steady decline in the performance. According to experts, better pay packages and lucrative job opportunities in the private sector have taken the sheen off the civil services. Meritorious students are not interested in preparing for the civil services, they said.
“In the last two years, there has been a significant rise in pay packages in the IT sector. Our students are just not interested to devote three to four years in preparing for civil services when they have opportunities in hand to earn lakhs of rupees during this period,” said S Chandru, academic head of Shankar IAS Academy.
Explaining the problem Chandru said, “Earlier, over 30 to 35 meritorious students from Anna University used to enrol in our coaching centres every year, but last year there was hardly any. The quality of students enrolling to appear for the UPSC has deteriorated so it will obviously have an impact on the results. We have noticed that students who are not getting good placement are enrolling in the coaching centre to prepare for the UPSC exam.”
Experts said there is a need to spread awareness in the rural areas. A senior official said in the recent budget a special scheme has been announced to increase the number of civil services qualifiers. “Hopefully, after implementing the new scheme everything will change for the better,” he said.