WITH thousands of our brightest minds aspiring to join the civil service, a parallel and predatory industry has emerged — the Civil Superior Services (CSS) coaching mafia. These unregulated academies have transformed a test of intellectual depth into a commercial circus, thriving on the anxieties of impressionable graduates.

With fee ranging from the exorbitant to the exploitative, these institutes market the dream of bureaucracy while delivering precious little other than recycled notes and outdated templates. All they sell is a one-size-fits-all strategy that stifles the very originality and analytical reasoning the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) seeks while shortlisting candidates for final selection.

Most alarming is the star teacher culture often led by former bureaucrats or failed aspirants who focus more on branding than on building the critical foundations of logic and English language. By promising a guaranteed path to success, they create a financial burden that often ends in a psychological despair for the 98 per cent who inevitably fail.

The federal government must urgently intervene to regulate these ‘coaching centres’ and hold them accountable for their claims. We must remind our youth that the CSS is actually an exam of character and intellect, not a commodity that can be purchased at an academy.

Farzam Talees
Okara

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2026