June 26, 2019:
Members of a 16-member committee formed by Delhi government's social welfare department will attend classes incognito to assess the quality of education being imparted in coaching centres to students availing financial assistance under the Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojna. Delhi government had launched the scheme in 2018 to provide economically disadvantaged scheduled caste candidates with quality coaching for competitive exams.
“It is a much-needed scheme for meritorious students from the community, many of whom would otherwise find it impossible to overcome their economic constraints. The success of a student can lift his or her entire family out of poverty,” said social welfare minister Rajendra Pal Gautam on Tuesday. “Because this scheme has the potential to change so many lives, we want to ensure its optimum efficiency.”
Last year, 4,400 students applied for aid under the scheme. “Some of them were able to crack IIT-JEE, which would have been difficult for them without the support of the government,” said Gautam.
However, the welfare department has received complaints about the poor teaching quality in a few coaching centres. Therefore, the department constituted a committee comprising 13 professors & three well-known social workers & asked it to provide inputs on the teaching quality at such coaching centres & to estimate the overall progress of education being provided under the scheme.
Panel members will randomly attend classes at coaching centres where students registered under the scheme are enrolled. “The manager of the coaching centre will be informed about these visits, but the teachers will have no idea that a committee member is sitting among the students. The decoy students will take notes & silently observe the entire class without revealing their identity,” explained an official.
At the end of the campaign, the members will interact with the registered students & give suggestions now how the coaching programmes can be improvement. The students are coached for the civil services preliminary & main examinations, for admission to engineering, MBA & other professional courses & for recruitment to banks, PSUs & Life Insurance Corporation of India, etc. The state government bears the cost of tuition up to a ceiling of Rs 1 lakh.
The AAP government intends to increase the upper limit permissible under the scheme to Rs 1.5 lakh. “The existing amount of Rs 1 lakh is not sufficient for various coaching programmes, such as for the civil services & admission to engineering & medical courses. A cabinet note is being prepared to hike the amount to Rs 1.5 lakh,” Gautam said.
Scheduled caste students residing in Delhi who have passed Class X & XII from city schools & have an annual family income of not more than Rs 6 lakh can avail of 75% of the total tuition fee from the government, while those from families earning less than Rs 2 lakh can have the full tuition fees paid.
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