MHRD thinks of offering affordable coaching classes for IIT/IIM etc.
February 9th, 2008
Update: MHRD thinking of SAT/GRE style staggered exams.
This is a good move by MHRD. Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph about this.
Concerned about the proliferation of private tutorial services and the high fees they charge, the human resource development ministry has approved a proposal to introduce the country’s first public-funded training to crack competitive exams.
Initially, the training is likely to cover entrance tests to the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Management. But the government plans to extend the facility to the civil services entrance exam too, senior officials said.
… The government is, however, anxious to ensure that the “cheaper” option does not end up as a poor man’s coaching class.
Teachers from the country’s top higher education institutions will be invited to form a faculty pool for the facility.
“It will be a broad-based effort involving teachers from universities, IITs and IIMs. The institutions have agreed in principle. The challenge will be to bring teachers on board,” the official said.
Officials conceded that at least initially, the online coaching might not be a substitute for the physical tutorials.
But they hoped the low fees would attract people — rich or poor — to it.
“We hope that soon enough they will realise that they will be prepared best for the competitive exams here,” the official said. … the Planning Commission is learnt to have cleared the proposal as well. … sources said students were likely to charged only a basic registration fee — probably less than Rs 1,000 — which will be used to cover additional emoluments for the faculty.
The faculty will each have a blog restricted to students, who can ask questions and will receive answers within a day.
The teachers’ pool will prepare tests in each subject, which students will take online — like the GRE.
Each student will have an online account — their entry to the coaching class.
Apart from the questions through blogs, live classes can also be held, the official said.
Entry Filed under: Coaching classes at plus two level,Cross-cutting topics
1 Writeup
1. R. K. Ghosh | February 9th, 2008 at 11:41 am
This is an interesting piece of news. If MHRD is so concerned why does not it revamp secondary educations. The only reason why coaching centers have been successful is the lack of quality education at secondary schools. NCERT run schools, kendriya vidyalays are in shambles. The quality of training imparted by these schools are abysmal. Most who can afford, send their wards to good private schools. The teachers in govt schools are appointed on various considerations other than merit. Naturally, these teachers have neither interest nor capabilities to teach. The CBSE books are ill-formatted, badly written and full of errors. Major casuality have been science teaching.