NEW DELHI: As many as 266 civil servants have been produced in the past ten years of Jamia Millia Islamia’s civil services tutoring at its ‘Residential Coaching Academy’. Besides, the civil servants, 403 students have cleared other state commission and central services exams in the country.
This year, the RCA came to the limelight in the name of the UPSC 2021 topper Shruti Sharma. A total of twenty-three students, including nine girls from RCA, have been selected for the Civil Services 2021. The reporter visited the academy to talk to the students, some of whom are preparing for the prelims and some who continue to study even after being selected in the UPSC, in order to improve their scores.
Nazish Umar Ansari, an IIT Delhi graduate who is among the RCA’s 23 students to be selected for UPSC continues to prepare for yet another prelims to be held in the coming days. Ansari who secured 344th rank is happy but not satisfied. “It will be after the prelims exam, I will decide if I wish to continue with the rank I have earned or I need to go ahead with another Mains exam,” said Ansari.
All praise for the academy, Ansari said, “Before coming here in January 2020, I was busy in self-studies for the exam but with two failed attempts. However, the coaching style at Jamia needs to be highlighted. I did not attend any class as we are given the liberty to study on our own and take guidance from the faculty whenever needed. It is the best time I have spent here and realised that when I could manage to secure this much rank while studying here, I can surely improve my ranks further.”
Meanwhile, another student clearing UPSC with the help of Jamia, Sunigya Chandra, 28 secured 394 rank. An IIT Bombay graduate, he had come to RCA in November 2021 to take coaching only for the Mains exam. Giving credits to the academy, Chandra said, “This was my third attempt at clearing UPSC and I had always messed up my mains or did not receive an interview call. Thus I wanted to focus on my Mains coaching.”
On the varied ways of training offered, Chandra said, “We were given freedom to study as per our sleep cycles. The academy helped me take several mock tests for interviews.” Talking about the academy’s success, Mohammad Tarique, RCA deputy director said, “We have come a long way from 2010 when Najeeb Jung had initiated this plan of having such an academy to train marginalised IAS aspirants. Currently, over 200 students are being coached at the academy.