Coaching centre-PSC nexus no longer surprises govt job aspirants

KOCHI: Be it the Generation X, Millennial or Generation Z, one thing that runs common among Malayalis is the lure of government jobs. Naturally, employment entrance tests conducted by the Kerala Public Service Commission (KPSC) draws in a large number of aspirants and they invest up to a year to prepare to crack the exams. No wonder then that the recent allegations of plagiarism in question paper for the Kerala Administrative Services (KAS) preliminary examination became the hot topic among job aspirants. 

“One of my friends said most of the questions for KAS were from the rank file published by the coaching centre she attends,” said a college goer who is preparing for a PSC test. “That means, those who bought other guides were fooled?” asked another girl. However, this is hardly a surprise for KAS aspirants. “I have been appearing for PSC tests for quite some time. I have come across many instances wherein the PSC has reproduced questions verbatim from the rank files published by top coaching centres,” alleged Arun N, who works at a government department. “These examinations are supposed to be hard to crack, but that is not the scenarios today,” he said. 

Arun said the recent Vigilance raids have revealed the nexus between top coaching centres and PSC insiders. “It’s been revealed that these top coaching centres are run by the better halves of some of the officials working in secretariat or other departments,” he said. According to Dileep C, another government job aspirant, one needs to only look at the advertisements put up by the coaching centres to understand where things stand. “Even before PSC publishes the notification calling for applications for a certain test, the coaching centres put up advertisements announcing the start of coaching for that very test. Mind you these are not regular competitive exams and PSC calls for application only when vacancies arise” he said.  

According to him, coaching centres will get the wind of it only if there’s inside information. “Another thing to be noted is the emphasis they put on students to learn all the questions in the rank file published by them,” he alleged. PSC has indeed lost its credibility, said Dileep.“If this is the case with the KAS prelims one can only wonder about the questions in the mains,” said Arun. “In a competitive exam, ranks slip to the 1,000th for a difference of 0.33 points. So, imagine the despair of the candidate who gets displaced even after slogging it out by someone who had the good luck of being a student of a particular coaching centre,” said Arun.Until this unholy nexus is broken, PSC tests will just be a cruel farce on gullible candidates. “If not, the lure of a government job will remain a mirage for many deserving candidates,” said Arun.