A civil services coaching centre in Patna. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Feb. 17: Bihar has always prided itself in producing a large number of civil servants and bureaucrats since Independence. But the recent trend of UPSC and IAS aspirants migrating from the state to Delhi and other parts of the country is a cause of concern for the authorities.

The application process of UPSC preliminary and Civil Services Aptitude Test is set to start on February 19. Students pursuing civil services, however, claim the academic environment in the state is not conducive for success in competitive examinations.

Most good students leave for other cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta or even Allahabad — where better training facilities are available. Those who stay back feel the lack of proper training facilities. But even for those who go out in search of greener pastures and better facilities, there is no guarantee of success.

In a bid to prevent the rampant migration of civil service aspirants and also combat commercialisation of training facilities, Patna Employment Exchange has come with a unique plan. The employment exchange employees are now volunteering to teach unemployed youth to crack the tough examination, free of cost. But that has not been able to stem the flow.

“Good students from well-to-do families choose to go to Delhi or Allahabad for better training. Those left behind suffer from the lack of a proper environment for success in competitive examinations,” said Saurav Kumar, an UPSC aspirant in Patna.

He added: “Most of the training material used by teachers in the state are sourced from Delhi. But they are usually two or three years old and not of much help for us. Also, the medium of instruction is Hindi — that is a problem for students from English medium background.”

“The academic environment in Patna is not suitable for competitive examinations. The irregular academic sessions in the various universities hampers studies and the students are forced to go to Delhi or other parts of the country,” said R.B.P Singh, the head of the Patna University geography department.

He added: “Teachers in Bihar are often unaware of the changes in the syllabus for the civil services examinations. Earlier, questions used to be repeated frequently but now they have become more innovative and challenging. But teachers in the state are unable to guide the students. So they leave for other places.”

Piyush Priye, another civil service aspirant, said English is the Achilles’ heel for the students of the state.

Priye, who has moved to Allahabad to get trained, said: “Allahabad is one of the oldest training centres for civil service aspirants. It has around 1,000 centres, most of them around University Road and Katra. They charge around Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 for integrated courses or Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 per subject. A large number of students from Bihar live here.”

Patna University Hindi department head Balram Tiwari said: “The rise in criminal activities forced good teachers to leave. Untrained and incompetent teachers have filled the vacuum. But they are not able to provide the students with the training they need. Thus the students migrate to Delhi, where there are better facilities.”

“Extortion and kidnapping of teachers and owners of coaching centres — that was common even a couple of years back — also forced trained and experienced teachers to leave,” added Tiwari.

Of course going to other states does not guarantee success, as most of the coaching centres in Delhi charge exorbitant amounts and provide sub-standard training.

“Most of the coaching centres charge between Rs 20,000 and Rs 50,000. Unsuccessful candidates run the so-called “best training centres”. But students still go there because some of them are able to provide the latest teaching material,” said Indraneel Biswas, a Patna resident, who has been training for IAS in Delhi for the past two years.

“Cracking UPSC examinations is not easy. Less than 1 per cent candidates, who appear for the examinations, qualify. Bihar has regularly contributed 50 per cent of the successful candidates. Commercial centres — both in Delhi and in Patna — are run by unsuccessful UPSC candidates. But our students are taught by successful civil servants,” said S.S. Tripathi, the assistant director of the Patna employment Exchange.

Tripathi, a BPSC 1986 candidate, added: “We teach English, reasoning, current affairs, history and economics. Students need to learn English and have rock solid determination.”

He would know what it means to be determined — while preparing for the civil service examinations he was diagnosed with brain tumour and also held down the job of a provisional officer in a bank.