UPSC coaching admissions may take a hit

Since the lockdown, aspirants who have opted for offline classes were also asked to go online. Experts fear that this year offline admission would take a toll due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Kanakavel Kamaraj of Kamaraj IAS Academy said, “Every year, 10 per cent of our student opt for online classes for various reasons. Due to the outbreak, this year offline admission may take a hit but we are expecting a 10 to 30 per cent surge in online classes.” Kamaraj added that many parents would not allow their children to relocate to Chennai to be on the safer side. “Many aspirants would be a single child to their parents and students would prefer to join classes from next year or join the batches that starts from the end of this year,” he said.

After the lockdown, the academy asked the students to take online classes for the remaining portions. It has been conducting free online tests, which cost around Rs 8,000. 

Israel Jebasingh, a former IAS officer and founder of Officers IAS Academy said, “As of now, we have no idea how the admission would turn out. The admission process is going on and we have reduced the initial fee to Rs 4,000 from Rs 40,000. They can pay the remaining while joining the course. We have to wait and watch how this outbreak would take us from here. Though the admission strength may not be as expected, it is possible students would join later batches.”

Both Kamaraj and Israel concurred that whenever there is an economic slowdown, the number of students preparing for the competitive examination increases. Due to the slowdown, rise in unemployment, job loss in service sector and other industries, many would find the security offered by government jobs attractive.

On online classes being conducted through Zoom, which has raised concerns of data and privacy risks, Kamaraj said his academy has decided not to take the classes through it and was in talks with other service providers.

Aspirants whom DT Next spoke to said that majority of classes have been completed before the lockdown and it didn’t affect them much.