Indian Express 13.08.2010
NDMC’s Lakshya: Free entrance coaching for its students
Geeta Gupta Tags : NDMC, students Posted: Fri Aug 13 2010, 02:31 hrs
New Delhi: Merit pays:civic body will select 30-40 brightest Class XII students and give them coaching free of cost in first year of schemeIn A bid to bridge the gap between private and government-aided schools, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has decided to give its students the chance to aim for more ambitious career options by equipping them to take entrance exams like the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE), the Pre Medical Test (PMT) and the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE).
Starting this academic year, the NDMC has decided to take a step beyond basic education and provide its students the best coaching free of cost and help them aspire for a seat in the top medical and engineering institutions of the country. The municipal body has already come up with its request for proposals, expecting interest from top coaching study circles in the city like FIITJEE, Aakash, Sahil, Sri Chaitanya and the others.
“The scheme is called ‘Lakshya’. While the NDMC would provide all infrastructure, we want the partner institute to get the problem-solving and analytical expertise, which our schools lack at the moment,” NDMC Secretary Santosh Vaidya told Newsline.
The NDMC, which has seen only two students in the last 10 years going on to study in higher institutions, also plans to incentivise the partner institutions appropriately.
Apart from giving them added recognition, the plan is to also reward them with an additional 30 per cent of the total coaching fees for every selected student.
The NDMC has 70 schools in the city, including 11 Navyug schools, which are all secondary and senior secondary English-medium schools. The plan is to give coaching in two ways: the standard course a two-year coaching programme that starts in Class XI, and the fast-track year-long course for Class XII students. The municipal body plans to start the first fast-track course from September 1.
“We will select 30-40 of our brightest students in Class XII and provide them the coaching. For the first year, we would want it to be free of cost. It can be worked out as partial or full-scholarship schemes later,” said Vaidya.
The NDMC schools cater to the economically weaker sections of the society, and even the brightest students give up on their ambitions due to a for lack of money, he said.
“We need to build role models, not just to improve the quality of education and encourage more students to take an interest in higher education, but also to put a check on the high dropout rate. Even if five of our students get selected in the first year, we would have achieved a lot,” Vaidya said.
