Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala State Civil Services Academy, a premier institute of the state government coaching students to prepare for the civil services examinations, is opening more centres in rural areas. After opening centres at Konni and Aloor in Thrissur district, the academy is opening a centre at Kalyaserry in Kannur on December 17. Apart from these rural centres, the academy now has centres at Ponnani, Muvattupuzha, Kozhikode and Palakkad apart from the headquarters at Thiruvananthapuram.
Kerala State Civil Service Academy (KSCSA) director G.S. Girish Kumar told Deccan Chronicle that the plan was to open centres in each district. The centre at Kalyaserry will come up in the Centre of Excellence Building of the district panchayat. As the building was constructed using the funds of the SC/ST development department, 51 per cent of the seats will be earmarked for the SC/ST students, Mr Kumar said. New centres are being opened at a time when results in civil services examinations for the year 2015 was the worst after 2010.
There were only 24 are from the state in the entire rank list with Anand O. from Valenchery in Malappuram being the highest ranked Malayali with rank 33. In 2014, Renu Raj from the state had secured second rank and there were three others in the top 100. The best result for the state came in 2012, when students from the state bagged three out of the five top ranks. Haritha V. Kumar was ranked first followed by, Sriram Venkitaraman and Alby John Varghese who secured the second and fourth ranks that year.
That year also saw a candidate from the state ranked first after Raju Narayana Swami achieved the feat in 1991. The decision to open civil services academy was taken after none of the candidates qualified for the examinations in 2003 and 2004. The centre produced instant result with eight candidates qualifying in 2005. A total of 350 students from the academy qualified for the civil services during the 11 years of its existence, Mr Kumar said.
