- Private academies duping lecturer hopefuls by false promises of success in PPSC exams
- Educationists say private academies defrauding students by misusing teachers’ names without their knowledge
As the dates for the written PPSC exam for government lecturers loom closer, a large number of academies have sprung up in the provincial capital to ‘prepare’ thousands of applicants for the coveted Grade 17 government position, Pakistan Today has observed.
The PPSC issued a notification through newspapers on May 3, 2015, announcing 660 seats for male and 1,208 for female lecturers in the Punjab Higher Education Department. Since then various academies have propped up in every nook and corner of the city, offering ‘guarantees’ of excellent results and promising surefire success to aspirants.
Prof Ishfaq Ali, who teaches Statistics at Government MAO College Lahore, told Pakistan Today that these institutes are nothing but a façade put up to mint money for students. These are not sources that can provide quality education or certify success to any student.
He went on to say that such institutes fool students by adding the name of existing professors on their advertisements. This is done to draw the attention of aspirants who would rather attend a place with a faculty made up of existing lecturers.
Ali told an interesting story about the time one of his students asked him if he was also teaching in one of these academies. The academy had mentioned Ali as a staff member without him knowing!
A lecturer at Govt Dayal Singh College Lahore, Adnan Mohsin, who was selected in 2012, revealed that he did not join any academy to prepare for the written test as a student. He questioned how any academy could impart 16 years of knowledge in just a week or two.
“I used to get together with a group of friends to study, all of whom were well-versed in our subjects and no one from the group tried to find any academy – neither for the written test nor for the interview,” he said.
“We would cross question each other in order to prepare for the interview,” he added. Mohsin is an Urdu literature lecturer and says that it is impossible to be taught in any academy.
Prof Amjad Tufail, who has been teaching Psychology in the Higher Education Department since 1994, told Pakistan Today that these academies may be helpful for those who have prior knowledge of their subject. However, they are a futile exercise for those who are eyeing to be selected just by studying for a week or two.
Tufail believes that the ongoing academy culture may be detrimental to the education system of the country as it promotes cramming and discourages creativity.
Daily newspapers are filled with the advertisements of several academies claiming surety of success in the written test.
The Pakistan School of Economics (PSE), an institution in Iqbal Town Lahore, offers a two-week economics course at the cost of Rs 10,000. The institution claims it will be sufficient for a student to be selected as a lecturer.
Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association (PPLA) President Dr Zahid Sheikh, said that it entirely up to the student whether he can learn from the experience of a senior professor in an academy. Only students with prior knowledge can benefit from these kinds of academies, he added.
