New Delhi: With less than two months to go, anxiety is looming large among lakhs of candidates appearing for UPSC’s preliminary exams for civil services due to the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown, which they say has derailed their preparations.
Several candidates are also running online petitions urging the government to postpone the exam, which is scheduled for 31 May.
Taking up the issue on Twitter Friday, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor tweeted that he has been deluged with queries regarding the schedule of the exam.
“Each year about 9 lakh students appear for the coveted UPSC exams to join the prestigious civil services. But so far no aspirant has a clue whether the Preliminary exam will go ahead as scheduled on May 31st or be postponed. @DrJitendraSingh please clarify, am deluged w/queries!” he tweeted.
Each year about 9 lakh students appear for the coveted UPSC exams to join the prestigious civil services. But so far no aspirant has a clue whether the Preliminary exam will go ahead as scheduled on May 31st or be postponed. @DrJitendraSingh please clarify, am deluged w/queries!
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) April 10, 2020
“This is a very crucial time for candidates,” said Prithvi, a civil service aspirant from Hyderabad.
“It is in the last two-three months that candidates take tests at coaching centres and do the final preparation…The lockdown has been a jolt because of which candidates have been unable to do anything,” he added.
However, the UPSC is yet to take a call on the issue.
“It is still too early to decide on postponement,” a senior UPSC official told ThePrint on condition of anonymity. “Right now, the commission is working with the bare minimum strength…The officials even go to the office on rotation, so there is no decision on postponement of the exam.”
According to a DoPT official, once the lockdown is lifted, the commission will be in a better position to gauge the situation.
“The exam will be postponed if there is a need, but right now with more than a month to go for the exam, it is still too early to say if that kind of a need will arise…The government will keep candidates in the loop,” he said.
Also read: UPSC allows application withdrawal, but it is unlikely to deter ‘casual’ IAS, IPS aspirants
Covid-19 pandemic, lockdown hampered preparation
Meanwhile, several candidates are running online petitions to urge the government to postpone the exam.
According to these aspirants, a number of candidates enrolled in coaching classes and hostels to prepare for these exams, however, due to the lockdown, several of them had to return home due to the lockdown. This severely hampered their preparation.
One of the petitions on Change.org says, “We, the aspirants, support our government and its efforts in tackling this pandemic. However, adequate attention must be paid to our issues as well.”
“UPSC Prelims requires dedicated preparation of 3-4 months and looming uncertainty over extension of lockdown is hampering our preparation,” it states.
“Anxiety and stress is preventing us from performing at our best. We feel our health is at risk if we are made to write exams during this pandemic,” the petition adds.
Over 9 lakh candidates prepare for the UPSC Civil Services Exam, which selects officers for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), India Police Service (IPS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Revenue Service (IRS) for the country every year.
Approximately, 700-800 candidates get selected for the 20-plus civil services eventually.
Also read: Muslim IAS-IPS officers’ Covid-19 appeal to community: Don’t give anyone reason to blame you
A swift decision by upsc would have been appreciated by all…they could ve at least clarified….keepin us in a limbo…increases our stress manifold……we all r goin through extraordinary times….if i happen to fall sick while searchin fr books outsd..who would be held responsible…officials must ve sm respect for future policy makers…..hope gud sense prevail
Sir please postpone the exam. Its actually a need of the hour because we students are locked in our homes with a minimum of our books. I haven’t my notes with me to revise them even. Please sir consider our problem.
Kindly postpone exam plz.
Kindly postpone the upsc prelims exam. Because of this pandemic situation of coronavirus.many students are facing the problems like coaching center and libraries are closed and books store and xerox center are shut down . Due to this , preparation of exam are disturbed. So please postpone the exam.
Postpone exam …lack of access to study material and test series from coaching centre
Due to lockdown shop coaching are closed. Didn’t get study material for preparation.Even have problem with daily essential services like food water. It all hamper our preparation. Postponed preliminary exam
Didn’t get study material due to lockdown shop coaching are closed .it hamper preparation a lot. Postponed preliminary exam
I think upsc give us time as lock down is over bec they know very well it,s very crusial time for every indian and also ias asiprint.
Most of students want to postpone the prelims exam due to various reasons like many of them suddenly left to their home towns from places where they are studying like delhi with minimum books ,
lack of access to internet in rural areas,
No proper connectivity to internet,
Shutdown of book and Xerox shops,
Health related issues of families,
Shutdown of libraries, studyhalls,and many more . This is request to UPSC that please consider issues which students are facing and then take a decision. Because this might be last attempt to some students and this might be first attempt to some students who prepared well and kept lots of hopes but due to this lockdown before 2months of prelims hampered their preparation . I wish UPSC should give fair time to every student who has got effected by this lockdown and then should conduct the exam.
GOOD EVENING SIR , I HAVE TO ASKED WITH YOU ABOUT UPSC EXAM WILL U EXTENDED THE DATE BECAUSE MY EXAM IA HELD IN ALIGARH AND I LIVED IN NEW DELHI . SO PLZ UPDATED TO US .WE NEEDED TO KNOW ALL INFORMATION RELATED WITH UPSC BECAUSE THESE TIMES ARE GOING ON LOCK DOWN SO ITS VERY DIFFICULT TIME .TO STAY AT HOME .WE ALL NEEDED PRECAUTIONS FOR SAFETY WITH CORONA VIRUSES.
The commission if conducts the exam on 31st May would jeopardize the health of lakhs of students. Even after the end of lockdown, Social Distancing would very much be a necessity. The commission must take the responsibility of the same if such a situation arises. This is a question of life and death and it must not play with lives of lakhs of students.
Dear sir , pls give some clearity abt the exame， UPSC is just not a exame for us it’s more than for us.Many of us r locked away from our study resources so pls postponed the exame for few months.
Some of rural background students even couldn’t access online classes due to poor Network coverage, please consider these too..
Postpone Prelims
Coronavirus cases are rising day by day by 1500/day rate….Kindly postpone Prelims.
Government official who says its too early to decide smokes lowest quality of weed. He is an example of idiot persons who call shots in UPSC. They have totally lost their minds by being ignorant to plight of candidates who can’t study in lockdown.
Government official who says it too early to decide smokes lowest quality of weed. He is idiotic example of persons who call shots in UPSC. They have totally lost their minds if they had any by being ignorant to plight of candidates who can’t study in lockdown.
Government official in newspiece is shallow minded individual who thinks UPSC is bigger than Corona Virus. Fools, wake up!UPSC needs to be a fair and rational body. Postpone UPSC CSE Prelims by 1 month and conduct it on Last Sunday of June. Total lockdown has resulted in no study material being delivered.No internet connectivity. So no study and you expect us to perform at toughest exam.Rascals, you need to understand that we also have family to look after in this pandemic. We have to bear the double brunt of mental stress and physical stress. Enough is enough of shamelessness of UPSC.
State after State is extending lockdown upto 30th April. Even after 30th April, lockdown will be lifted in phased manner
Whoever government official you spoke to doesn’t know the ground reality of candidates preparing from remote villages of India. Life has been thrown out completely out of gear since 1month. Postpone UPSC Prelims by 1 month and conduct Prelims on 28th June,Sunday. Heaven’s won’t fall if UPSC Prelims is postponed by 1 month. Be considerate and realistic. Don’t play with the future of candidates or lets not UPSC decision makers be educated brain-dead criminals.
My all study material is there in Delhi and I came home for some personal work.
Due to lockdown I am stuck here at home.
Very scary time for persons like me.
Like the Tokyo Olympics, a postponement, although hopefully for much less than one year, is inevitable. It would be fair to the candidates to make the announcement in very good time. In a society with robust institutions, this decision should be made in the UPSC.