With the successful launch of meritorious scheme ‘Jai Bhim Mukhyemantri Pratibha Vikas Yojana’ last year, approximately 4,953 students have enrolled for the coaching facilities in various courses so far against the proposed target of 5,000 students in a year.
Rajendra Pal Gautam, Minister of SC/ST chaired a high level meeting on Monday with representatives of various reputed institutions in order to extend the scheme further.
“The Delhi Government primary focus is to enroll as many students as needed, since we believe that no student should be deprived of his/her basic right of quality education for lack of money,” said Rajendra Pal Gautam.
Fee structure and durations of the time period for competitive examination were also discussed in the meeting. It was also proposed that coaching institutes may be allowed to maintain 75 per cent as a minimum percentage of students from Government schools to maintain the exact ratio of students as 75:25 (Government: Private schools).
He said that a few suggestions from the institutes also came in, which would be incorporated in the scheme after discussing the modalities of the amended scheme. The minister also informed that a monitoring committee including members with academic background has already been formed to give a feedback of the institutes who are enrolled with this scheme last year.
“The duration of the coaching programme for the civil services examination should be extended up to 12 months so that sufficient time should be given for preparation of main exam after the preliminary examination,” he added.
He also informed that the quantum of fee for coaching programme will be extended depending on the fee structure of the institute.
Presently, maximum sealing of the coaching fees is up to Rs 40,000. Apart from fee, stipend of Rs 2500 per student is also been provided to the students per month through ECS (Electronic Clearing Service).
“Delhi Government wished to extend this meritorious scheme for the benefit of the marginalised students of SC category who could not afford heavy fee structure of these institutes,” it said in a statement.
Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojana” is a scheme for providing free pre-coaching scheme for SC/ST students for preparing themselves for various examinations conducted by UPSC, DSSSB, SSC, Railway Recruitment Board and other examinations of officers grade conducted by banks and insurance companies and for preparing for pre examination for medical and engineering education.
The scheme was launched with the objective to provide quality coaching for economically disadvantaged students of scheduled caste to help them in succeeding in various competitive examinations and to get better jobs opportunities. The government is dedicatedly working for the upliftment of the marginalised sections of the society, it said.