Tamil Nadu Share in Civil Services Abysmal

Chennai, July 23: The paradigm shift in higher education has not helped students from Tamil Nadu qualify for the civil services in a large way in recent years. Hardly five percent of the candidates who had made it to the Civil Services Main Examination conducted by the UPSC from 2001 to 2005, were from the state.

An analysis of the data available for these five years, reveals that out of the 24,546 candidates who had taken the main examination, just 1,205 were from Tamil Nadu. A mere 166 were selected.

The University of Madras is the lone higher educational institution from the State to make it to the top 10 institutions from where the most number of candidates were selected for the civil services. The university is placed eighth behind the University of Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, University of Rajasthan, University of Allahabad, Punjab University, University of Lucknow and University of Pune.

"This is not a good trend. There was a time when we had our people in key positions in the North Block and South Block in New Delhi," pointed out a senior IAS officer.

Conceding that the Information Technology sector had weaned away the cream of the students, University of Madras Vice-Chancellor S Ramachan-dran also felt that civil services had lost its charm. "The way IAS officers are being treated by politicians, even civil servants are not keen on their children following in their footsteps," he said.

Below average students finding their way into professional courses and a weak foundation in high school has also contributed to the downslide, he added.

Tamil Nadu Share in Civil Services Abysmal

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