New Delhi: The Government is set
to announce a residential coaching scheme for minority students
towards effecting a radical improvement in their employment and
representation in government and industry — one of the objectives
laid down in the Sachar Committee report on improving the state of
minorities.
The Human Resource
Development (HRD) Ministry will soon roll out an ambitious scheme
that envisages coaching for all government examinations — from Civil
Services to state-level examinations — for minority students
selected after an all-India merit test.
The scheme will be
announced soon and sources said efforts are on to have it included
in the Prime Minister’s speech on Independence Day.
“The idea is to
train students to crack every major exam from IAS to IIT. While
Phase I will see five universities starting the coaching programmes,
Phase II will extend it to 10 other universities. While the coaching
will be free, there may be a nominal charge for residential
facilities,”said an official.
Keen to get the
scheme launched, the HRD Ministry will open Academies of Minority
Coaching in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Uttar Pradesh, Jamia
Hamdard University in Delhi, Maulana Azad Urdu University in
Hyderabad and the Ambedkar University this year itself. As many as
200 students will be enrolled. The coaching programmes will run from
five weeks to a year depending on the examination.
The scheme, mooted
by Kapil Sibal, was taken up on priority basis by HRD Secretary for
Higher Education R P Agarwal who has already held discussions with
the Vice Chancellors of these universities.
The HRD Ministry
plans to expand the ambit of this scheme to include SC/STs and women
among those eligible. In fact, the 10 other universities will be
women universities. An estimated 40 per cent of those enrolled for
this coaching should be women, as per the Ministry’s plans.
The residential
coaching programme takes off from the Scheme of Coaching for SC/ST
Students and Minority Community Candidates for National Education
Testing (NET). While the UGC scheme was quite a non-starter, this
scheme will be a far improved version.
Universities which
will conduct this coaching will be provided some seed money and the
freedom to employ their staff for the coaching classes besides
inviting experts.
(Courtesy:
Indian Express Group)
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