(Representative image)

Key Highlights The central government plans to launch free online course material for the preparation of IIT-JEE

The course material is intended to provide opportunities to students from disadvantaged sections

Most districts in the state do not have the benefit of top coaching institutes

Coimbatore: In a boost to IIT aspirants, the central government plans to launch free online course material for the preparation of IIT-JEE on August 15. The course material is intended to provide opportunities to students from disadvantaged sections, especially those in rural areas.

The learning material will be in the form of text and videos on Youtube. Besides the preparation material, there will also be practice tests for students.

Although cities like Chennai and Coimbatore have institutes that offer IIT-JEE coaching, most districts in the state do not have the benefit of top coaching institutes.

"This is a great initiative by the government. The quality of the resources, though, needs to be tested as preparing for such tough exams depends to a great extent on the course material and practice exams," said M V Reddy, president of coaching institute TIME Pvt Ltd.

Experts from coaching institutes, however, noted that preparation through online material may deprive students of a teacher's guidance. "In a general coaching ambience, a student would study along with his peers and have a one to one interaction with the faculty which would be missing in an online mode. The student aims to score more by clarifying his doubts with the faculty, sharing knowledge by studying in a group and taking practice tests," Reddy said. "Classroom coaching also provides counseling by the faculty, hard copy reports for the tests taken and problem solving sessions which are required during the preparation stage," he added.

Speaking about the plan, a government school teacher from Coimbatore feels that this could help students of government schools. "The Tamil Nadu government has provided laptops to school students. With internet facility easily available at a cheap cost, such a facility by the Centre will help students in the rural areas," said the head of a government school on the outskirts of Coimbatore. "This could perhaps be the beginning for the state to show its potential in the competitive exam," the principal added.

While the Centre may be slightly late in coming out with this plan to provide learning material online, some private players have already entered the market in the last few years.

However, the edge that the Centre has is that members of the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE), experts from IITs, teachers from Kendriya Vidyalayas and professors from coaching institutes will be part of the expert committee that prepares the course material.

