New scheme to arrange private tuitions for aspirants; govt to bear the fee

Hundreds of students belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Castes and minority communities could soon be able to join private coaching centres to prepare for competitive exams at the expense of the Delhi government.

The department of SC/ST welfare is in the process of preparing the proposal for the new scheme, which will replace an earlier programme that included the government hiring private tutors to run coaching classes. Delhi Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam said on Saturday that the proposal should be ready with a month.

“At least 500 students would be able to avail of the scheme. We will involve the reputed coaching centres in the city. They will conduct their own tests to select the candidates, who will have to meet our criteria first. We will pay their fees,” said Mr. Gautam.

No separate classes

He added that the coaching centres would be asked to include the beneficiaries of the scheme in regular classes. “We don’t want separate classes for the students,” said Mr. Gautam.

The scheme would cover competitive exams held by the Central and State governments, including the Union Public Services Commission, medical and engineering entrance tests. After the scheme is cleared by the government, the students would be able to join the next batch of classes held by the coaching centres.

On Friday, as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal reviewed the implementation of various schemes of the social welfare and SC/ST departments, he asked for a detailed proposal of the coaching scheme at the earliest.

The predecessor to the proposed scheme was the SC/ST department running its own coaching centre for students. This, according to Mr. Gautam, had not been successful, leading the government to come up with a new model.

Candidates eligible under the previous scheme were those whose families’ annual incomes were not more than Rs. 3 lakh. They had to be residents of Delhi for the past five years. They also could not have taken coaching from the Delhi government or any Centrally-funded centre more than once.