Officers Academy Lahore - Unveiled and Unfurled
 

[B]NOTE:[/B][B]This thread in no way reflects upon the personal lives of the individuals mentioned. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. These are just mine intertwined with some verifiable facts. The rest i leave up to your infinitely creative minds.[/B]

[COLOR="Blue"][B]After viewing and going through several threads about which academy is better and which is not, i've decided to write my own account of the academy i attended. Maybe this account will help future CSS aspirants to make up their minds more accurately and decide which academy to enroll themselves into.[/B][/COLOR]

And here we go...

Being one of the most prestigious and well renowned CSS academies in the Lahore District, Officers Academy fails to live up to its name. My very first day at Officers academy, i had a late epiphany - 'its a business. Period!'. But lets move on to the more finer aspects of attending Officers Academy Lahore.

[B]1. Capitalism -[/B] now this is something we Pakistanis are prone to dealing with everyday. However, this ideology gains new heights when one enrolls at Officers Academy Lahore. After initially paying the tuition fee of 35K, one is not relinquished from his duties of paying more 'dough' to the 'Officers Academy Trust Fund'. The various money siphoning techniques employed by SP Syed Hammad Haider include (but are not limited to):
- overpriced notes,
- an extra charge of Rs. 4000 on top of the initial Rs. 35000 for tests,
- Rs. 2000 for the 'Golden Notes' - a 300 page booklet containing current affair notes,
- daily lectures and topics not covered in class (which are 'supposed' to be read and understood by the student himself/herself), etc.

While a person with a financially stable background may be able to afford it, a person who has moved to the city from a distant village and belongs to a low/middle class family (majority of CSS aspirants) may find it hard to afford such 'lucrative' notes but apparently Officers Academy (which henceforth will be called OA) fail to recognize it.

[B]2. Punctuality -[/B] Undermined strongly at Officers Academy, the brightest example is the Principal/Teacher SP Syed Hammad Haider. If a class (70% of which are taught by SP Hammad himself) is supposed to start at 10, it will, with the grace of Almighty Allah, start at 10:30 if you're lucky enough and if SP Hammad did not forget to set the alarm the previous night. Ask any forum member, who attended/attends Officers Academy, and he will repeat this statement. When asked about this 'punctual' behavior, SP Hammad jokingly quotes "This was put in effect so that the students feel relaxed by the time i start the class." However, most of the other teachers do arrive on time but have to wait until SP Hammad finishes his absurdly late started class.

[B]3. Guidance -[/B] Abundantly available. Although SP Hammad may seem to be a bit outdated at times, other teachers like Mr. Tahir and Mr. Jafri are always there to help you even with the most mundane questions that you might have about CSS and its policies. Also, SP Hammad's brother Waqar is a very reliable source as well. No pun intended.

[B]4. Inefficient Faculty -[/B] As shocked as you might be when you come to learn of the realities of life, still more shocked you will be when you take your first steps inside Officers Academy. Apart from SP Hammad, Mr. Tahir, Mr. Mehmood Jafri and Mr. Zakaullah, the rest of the faculty are recently qualified students. Now ask yourself, a student who recently passed his CSS examination (2009 to be precise) and has no teaching experience, teaching you two to three compulsory courses. Let your imagination soar and think deeply about this. Apart from that, the Islamiat professor is perhaps the most fanatical, extremist and disrespectful man you'll ever meet. Yes i'm talking ofcourse about Mr. Zakaullah. In the first three weeks since my session started, six females left the class due to his obscene jokes. Now is this something you would expect from an islamiat professor? This is an eyewitness account ;)

[B]5. Male Chauvinism -[/B] Thought i should include this in my account for my female peers. Known for his well rehearsed male superiority comments, many female students walked out of SP Hammad's classes while the other females remained quiet having more tolerance to this sort of sexist behavior. So ladies beware! You've got a male chauvinistic principal if you join OA. If you have tolerance for this sort of opinions, then i urge you to enroll yourself at OA. Your patience will be tested to its limits. :haha

[B]6. Management -[/B] Hostile and ogling management resides at OA. Until recently, the evening receptionist was fired for consistent ogling and obscene remarks about a female student (after repeated complaints by the female to SP Hammad). The rest of the management have been known to behave rudely to students especially Hassan who, despite his rude comments and ill expression, does not differentiate between males and females :con

[B]7. The Principal -[/B] Now we come to the most impressive and outspoken personality of all. Yes you've guessed it right. Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to reintroduce SP Syed Hammad Haider - owner, founder, CEO, principal and teacher of OA. This person is perhaps the best guide money can buy. He will tell you the subjects which you should opt for (coincidentally everyone ends up opting for sociology, journalism, british history, international law and/or geography - which are all taught by him - amazing isn't it?). I respect him as an older brother but i have to say this guy is a bit of a shylock when it comes to cash. [I]PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:[/I] Me and some other students had the misfortune to have lunch with him once. Some students were insisting on having a farewell when session ended so one day he asked a couple of students to have lunch with him. We departed the academy together and ended up in Salt n' Pepper village. When the lunch was almost over, he called a waiter over and told him that two students would pay for him. Apparently everyone thought it was a joke but how wrong we were! Those two ended up paying for him and in return all they got was a quick "Thanks" and boing! there he went. We weren't expecting him to pay for all of us but we could've been dutch and paid for ourselves. Apart from that, he's a very intellectual guy who teaches well. I still respect him and i hope, despite his innumerable cons, God bless him and guide him in the right path as he has for a lot of students (after they paid the tuition fee ofcourse) :dd

Now i don't know what other academies are like since i was caught up in this word to mouth marketing hoax and ended up paying for the entire session at once and therefore could not exit when i wanted. Alas! The pain!

As for my credibility, i've been studying at OA for the past five months being a CSS 2011 aspirant.

[B]Again, this article does not reflect anyone's personality and is merely what i observed. The facts provided in this article are genuine and can therefore be verified by anyone.[/B]

your so right brother... i myself visited this academy for 2 months ...and i left it even though i had paid for 2.5 months. the reason being most of the time mr.Sp was late and whole day was wasted....and sometimes especially in sociology or journalism class he will start bashing the girls in the whole lecture....and one time i asked him about the syllabus of british history 2 ....he plainly refused saying that it was against the academy rules...i told him that i had paid for half session and i will pay more afterwards...but he still refused..that was the last day i went to that academy...SP wants money only....he lies a lot ... in one class he said that no student of officers academy has ever failed in the essay paper....haha...
that was my experience

As far as I know, he is no longer a serving SP. He was dismissed from service for faking his medical condition when subjected to a full medical tribunal.

Well, really :wacko:

I heard he is on paid leave for 3 years or so.

And yes, the Academy has not been impressive that's why I left it for good. Tahir, Jafri sb and Umer Farooq (the EDS guy) were good.

@phoenix
 

brother if asked would you adise anyone to join officers academy?
despite of all the loopholes you mentioned above do you think you gained something out of OA?
what are other options if not OA?(obviously css forum is alwayz there so need not to mention;))

[QUOTE=Sandhurst;258303]As far as I know, he is no longer a serving SP. He was dismissed from service for faking his medical condition when subjected to a full medical tribunal.[/QUOTE]
you know sandhurst, you're so right.
I have no idea why he writes these initials (SP) before his name. I mean on all his notes and brochures he writes SP Syed Hammad Haider even though he's not even in service.
I guess its to attract the common man and get him to think that this SP Hammad will make him a ASP in police :D


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[QUOTE=aminshah101;258310]Well, really :wacko:

I heard he is on paid leave for 3 years or so.

And yes, the Academy has not been impressive that's why I left it for good. Tahir, Jafri sb and Umer Farooq (the EDS guy) were good.[/QUOTE]

aminshah101 you were luckier than most of us at OA. You got out right at the beginning i imagine and were better off. For me, i got stuck because i was dumb enough to pay the entire tuition in one go just because i was getting a discount. hehe

What I heard about SP Hammad.He has been dismissed form police service, as he was posted somewhere in northern area and did not joined and sent some fake medical. Hammad’s top priority is money and he earned a lot out this academy phenomenon. The trend in CSS 2010 written papers is quite different and now FPSC is discouraging FORMULA preparation , furthermore the reforms in CSS exam is also expected to enforce by 2012 so this academy theory may not be so much successful in future.

@ThePhoenix

You are absolutely right. but these personalities are the part of every private instituion. You will find Sp Hamads in Kips, Noa, Nova. etc. yet candidates will join acadmies and will give account of thier sufferings to other students later on, as you have done it now. I have never been to acadamy. it is not because I could not afford tution fee, it is for the reason that they exploit students. Mushrooming of private acadmies in the recent years proves that it is a wonderful bussines provided you have the best propaganda machine. advertising made thier task easy.

It is a culture we have encouraged ourselves. the things you have told us are not new to this forum. Already many candidtes shared thier bitter experiencees here. But the quesions is through what way it is made possible to save the candidates from this wholesale plunder.
untill we present a solution to this question these monotonous tales would continue
resurfacing. And I will enjoy reading (hearing) them.

Once a very a close friend of mine consulted me on this issue. I suggested him not to join any acadamy for preparing css, I asked him if he had extra money he should donate it. anyway there were few others who opposed me saying i knew nothing. anyway my friend took admission in an acadmy in Johar town Lahore. Atleast you attended classes for 5 months however my friend left only after a month saying " I have wasted my money already now I do not want to waste my time here".

@ThePhoenix
You have done brilliant job by narrating true picture of the officer academy. This is the same story of academies in Karachi. Most aspirants are being befooled and looted by CSP officers. KIPS,UQAIPS and the Commoners are examples. In short, exorbitant fees and no assessment.

In this post an academy is criticized particular which is against the norms of journalism ethics if you write it in newspaper. It can also be a tactic to defame this academy on commercial grounds. I am against the trends of academies since its inception because these are instruments of minting money for the owners.

Your allegations carry weight but its partiality questions the credibility of your analysis. Many members of the forum must be agree with these facts by it is not these are not uncommon in other academies.