Jharkhand students to get free coaching for NTSE, Olympiads, CLAT

Ranchi, March 13: In a giant leap in education for underprivileged students Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand government state-owned school students in Jharkhand will soon be provided with special residential coaching for National Talent Search Examination (NTSE), Olympiads and Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) under a scheme.

Free coaching for preparation of National Defense Academy (NDA) test will also be added to the Aakanksha programme soon, an official release said on Sunday.

“Chief Minister Hemant Soren has approved this proposal of the school education and literacy department. Now, it will be placed for approval from the state cabinet,” it said.

A total of 100 students will be selected for the special residential coaching of NTSE and Olympiads. Twenty-five students each from class-7, 8, 9 and 10 will be picked for the two tests. NTSE is a national-level scholarship examination while Olympiads are competitions held by private organisations that test one’s knowledge in subjects like mathematics, science, English and computer.

For CLAT, the entrance test for admission to law universities, 100 students – 50 each from classes 11 and 12 – will be selected, the release said.

Annual detailed calendar will be determined according to the pattern of the National Talent Search Examination, Olympiad and CLAT examination. For the implementation of this scheme by the Steering Committee, the services of highly qualified teachers of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics, English and other subjects will be taken. At the same time, quality education will be provided through e-content and virtual classrooms.

Fortnightly, monthly and quarterly screening tests will be conducted for the students selected for the Akanksha program. It will be seen by the Steering Committee that the academic promotion of the students getting coaching should be in line with the target.

The Akanksha program is being expanded to prepare students studying in government schools of the state for competitive exams other than engineering and medical.

On the basis of the entrance examination conducted by the Jharkhand Academic Council for different courses, students will be selected for coaching under the Akanksha program. To guide the state aspiration program effectively, a monitoring committee will be formed, which will be headed by the Director of Secondary Education.

At the same time, there will be a steering committee under the chairmanship of the Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi to effectively run the aspiration program.

The students will be selected for the coaching on the basis of entrance examinations. The education department had initiated the Aakanksha programme in 2016-17 to provide free coaching for medical and engineering entrance examinations to those government school students who do not get proper guidance for the tests due to financial constraints and unavailability of appropriate learning materials.

Till now, 92 students have cleared Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main, 11 passed JEE Advanced and 64 have cracked the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) under the Aakanksha programme, the release said.

JEE Main is an all-India exam for admission to various technical undergraduate programmes in engineering, while JMM Advanced is held to admit students only in IITs. Students who want to enter medical colleges have to qualify NEET examination.