IAS Study Centre of PU: In need of better care for better results

It is not an easy task to get into this centre as one has to clear an entrance test and only top 50 students are selected,of which 38 seats are for general category students and 12 are fixed for SC and ST candidates. The test is conducted after every four months. Each teacher is paid Rs 1,200 per lecture.

Earlier,the centre used to run as a part-time coaching centre from the Department of Political Science. It was in 1997 that the varsity allocated a separate building to this self-financed centre. A few years back,the centre started coaching for mains exam,but it failed miserably.

Talking to Chandigarh Newsline,Dr Ravi Mahajan,former coordinator of the centre and now a teacher,said,“I was coordinator of the centre from 2002-04. At that time I had submitted a report to the then vice-chancellor after visiting the IAS centre run by Punjabi University,Patiala. It was submitted in the report that this centre should be treated as regular department and not as part-time. It needs a regular head who can devote 100 per cent time to the centre,and separate building,library and hostel facilitates for the students.”

Dr Mahajan said when he visited the Patiala IAS centre,he found that teachers from PU used to go from here to teach there. “The PU has vast resources and needs full utilisation,” he added.

Another teacher,requesting anonymity,said,“Teachers do have vast knowledge,but all are not well-versed with new changes that can come up in the exam. With teachers not having complete knack,students eventually lose interest in studies. We have to be honest with students and should instil a feeling of competition in them.”

Students maintain though the centre is providing coaching at very subsidised rates,it lacks many facilities. The guest faculty have vast knowledge,but they lack skills required to prepare for competitive exams. Even the test scheme is very redundant. “Sometimes we feel that questions for the tests are a copy-paste from some other test papers and do not have the level meant for IAS exams,” said one of the students.

The students are not happy with library timings either. It opens at 2 pm and closes at 5 pm and does not have computer facilities. “We know that university has main library,but it is difficult to find a seat there. If they open this library at 10 am,we can make use of it,” said another student.

While honorary director of the centre Rajan Gaur said “I have to attend some meeting”,Vice-Chancellor Arun Kumar Grover said,“We are open to all the suggestions that can help improve the centre. Even we want that varsity should produce officers as well.”