Kolkata: The St Xavier's College will be offering IAS coaching from the academic session August 2013. The coaching will be offered in eight with specialized subjects - commerce, economics, political science, international relations, sociology, statistics, history, management and physics.
The course will be a full-time course of duration of nine months. Candidates selected will have to attend classes on the campus for five days a week for four hours daily. In some privately-run coaching centres module-based training is imparted and so, candidates are not required to attend full-time classes. Principal Father Felix Raj has said that he believes in full-time teaching-learning and related mock exams, just like it happens in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in the college. He added that excellence comes through contact with the guide and it will be their uniqueness.
As per sources, in the beginning only 60 candidates will be enrolled on merit basis since the college seeks to keep the training intensive and niche. The training incorporates guides and faculty members from the college and those known to be experts in the subjects beyond the campus. Father Felix has mentioned that as far administrative services are concerned Bengal has not performed well and they had received a lot of requests to fill in the gap with a coaching centre.
Former principal of Presidency College, Amal Mukhopadhyay, also desirous of setting up an IAS coaching centre at Presidency regret its closing and referred to several reasons about Bengal's non performance in the administrative services. Mr Mukhopadhyay, said that the pattern of teaching-learning in Bengal is not favorable to qualify in the administrative services. Students here grow up in an atmosphere of rote learning that revolves around notes, questions and answers and do not get into the depth of the subject to polish their critical thinking skills.
Furthermore, he said that the questions asked at the IAS exams, especially at the mains and during the interview tests critical thinking. So how will students qualify? They have a 'joint entrance approach' to life, which can never be helpful to the administrative services. He said hope St Xavier's will be able to address the concern.
