Hyderabad: The sudden decision of the Telangana state government to change the syllabus for recruitment exams has come as a boon for coaching centres while delivering a blow to lakhs of students.

Students had spent up to Rs 1 lakh towards coaching fees and accommodation in the city for the last three years and had prepared for exams in the old syllabus. However, not a single job notification was issued in the last three years due to political uncertainty.

The recently constituted Telangana State Public Service Commission has now made it clear that the old syllabus drafted by APPSC in the undivided state is “invalid” and it will come out with a “Telangana-centric new syllabus”. It has even given “free advice” to students to apply for AP jobs if they want to write exams in the old syllabus. The joy of Telangana students with the setting up of TSPSC was short-lived due to the decision of changing the syllabus. Students who were expecting that the TSPSC would release a series of notifications and their three-year wait to secure government jobs would come to an end, received a jolt when it announced setting up an expert committee to draft a new syllabus two days ago.

Students are now worried about the time it will take for the committee to discuss changes, devise a new syllabus, get the government’s approval and notify it. Even after that, it would take several months to conduct the exams since sufficient time has to be given for students to prepare for the new syllabus.

TSPSC chairman Prof G. Chakrapani said, “Changing the syllabus in Telangana is necessary. Since the candidates who get selected have to serve the state for at least 20 years or more, they need to have knowledge on issues concerning Telangana. In the present syllabus, there is significant content relating to AP, which is irrelevant here. We will see that there is not much delay in drafting the new syllabus and issuing notifications.” He did not specify a time-frame by which this process would be complete.

Prof. Haragopal, who has been appointed as chairman of the new syllabus committee said, “With the bifurcation of AP, the situation has changed now. There is nothing wrong in changing the syllabus to suit the present needs. The same applies to AP also.”

But MLA and BC leader R. Krishnaiah, who is in the forefront of students’ agitation against the new syllabus, said, “We are not objecting to a syllabus change. What we want is that the government should give a chance to the present students who have already prepared the old syllabus and have been waiting for exams since three ye