Tribal students elated over getting quality training for Civils

PADERU (ASR district):  Cracking the civil services is not possible unless one undergoes a high-level of training. To get such training one has to spend lakhs of rupees and go to far off places ie main cities. It could be easier for the upper class but it is a challenging affair for the poor and lower middle class students. Clearing civil services examination has only been a dream up to now for the tribal students who are born in the hills and live far away from all basic facilities like education, medicine and transportation. Even securing a district-level officer job has been beyond their reach.

But a reform changed that situation. Now poor tribal students are also competing for top posts. They are dreaming big and are able to realise their goals, thanks to the initiative of conducting a civil services training camp for tribal students under Paderu ITDA at the Youth Training Centre (YTC) in Vepagunta in Alluri Sitarama Raju district. As many as 11 tribal mandals and eight other non-scheduled areas are under Paderu ITDA. Although there are some YTCs for training students for higher education, the training programmes have stopped due to a lack of funds.

Local tribal associations and student associations also submitted petitions to the ITDA seeking to set up training facilities. It was then decided to organise a YTC with high standards, especially for tribal students who appear for Civils. A preliminary entrance exam was conducted in March 2022 for admission into the YTC only to the tribal students under ITDA. As many as 1,575 people took the entrance exam and 600 were selected for the mains. Of these 600 candidates, 125 were selected in mains and interviews were conducted.

After the interview, 60 people were selected and training started in April last year. Among them 25 are girls and 35 are boys. ITDA project officer R Gopala Krishna said that Rs 35 lakh has been spent on digital classrooms, internet access, study rooms, free accommodation and meals along with special faculty services. IT company, 21st Century Software Solutions, has provided financial support to this programme as part of its CSR. The eligibility criteria set for the faculty members is appearing for the civils main examination four times or appearing for the interview twice.

Although initially this YTC was planned to be established in Paderu, as per the request of the faculty members, it has been set up at Vepagunta, Pendurthi mandal. Trainees S Indra Kumari, S Srinivasu, and A Umasai told The Hans India that the training facilities and standards were very good. These youth from poor tribal farming families are very happy to get such training.

Umasai recalled that many tribals before them had stopped studies because of the non-availability of such training. This batch will appear for the Civils prelims examination in April-May 2023. This team has already fared well in various tests. Among these tribals, 12 have qualified in Group-I prelims and 23 in the SI post prelims examination. Five have qualified in IBPS PO exams and 22 qualified in other exams. Trainees said that the interactions held with senior civil servants every Sunday were very useful and they were getting an opportunity to know the winning strategies. About 28 senior officials have attended such meetings and guided the tribal students.