Aakanksha programme was launched 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. Source: Pixabay
Government school students in Jharkhand will soon be provided special residential coaching for National Talent Search Examination (NTSE), Olympiads and Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) under the state-run Aakanksha programme.
Free coaching for preparation of National Defense Academy (NDA) test will also be added to the programme soon, an official release said on March 13.
Jharkhand 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, the release said.
A total of 100 students will be selected for the special residential coaching of NTSE and Olympiads. Twenty-five students each from Class VII, VIII, IX and X 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 in law universities, 100 students – 50 each from Classes XI and XII – will be selected, the release said.
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.
So far, 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 in various technical undergraduate programmes in engineering, while JEE Advanced is held to admit students only in Indian Institutes of Technology. Students who want to enter medical colleges have to qualify NEET examination.