Free coaching centres for SC students lying defunct in Haryana varsities
CENTRES RUN COURSES SPONSORED BY UGC TO PREPARE STUDENTS FOR WRITING EXAMS AND CLEAR INTERVIEWS
ROHTAK:CENTRES of preparing for competitive exams in Haryana universities, which were set up to give free coaching to Dalit and other backward classes students, have not been running any course for the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)’S civil services exam for the past many years.
These centres also offer courses on preparing for exams such as NET/JRF, bank probationary officer (PO), Haryana civil services and MBA entrance test etc. The state has two such competitive centres at government-run Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) in Rohtak and Kurukshetra University (KU) in Kurukshetra — both of which have not been giving any coaching to UPSC aspirants.
These centres run courses sponsored by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and are intended to prepare students for writing competitive exams and clear interviews and personality tests. The courses usually start few months before the date of the exam. However, in absence of regular faculty and shortage of funds, these centres have been limited giving coaching of just one or two courses with rare participation of students.
"With just four months left for the prelims exam, it would have been helpful to have a coaching centre in my city where I could study for free. Now, I will have to waste time in travelling to Delhi or Gurgaon to search for my options," said Ravi Kumar, a Dalit UPSC aspirant in Rohtak who helps his parents in ironing clothes for a living.
The officials at the competitive centres said like every year they have sent a proposal to the universities to start a 60-day programme for UPSC prelims exam from March 12. However, they said they were not sure if any faculty would be available to teach. If the proposal works out, the general category candidates would be able to enrol themselves by paying Rs 20,000 fee, while the coaching will be free of cost for SC/ST candidates.
Professor Parmod Bhardwaj, the director of the centre at MDU, said the UGC allows a grant of just Rs 300 to the faculty member for one session of lecture. "The grant might be adequate for the faculty of other courses. But for UPSC civil services, no good teacher would be available for this money. Many times I have organised special sessions for aspirants asking my known experts to come here. But they also can not commit for longer durations,” he said.