education

Updated: Jul 02, 2019 16:56 IST

Encouraged by last year’s success, Indian Army here on Friday started the second batch of Super-30, an initiative to provide free coaching to youths.

Super 30 –an effort of army with Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) companies is helping young boys and girls from remote areas to reshape their lives. Under this initiative, the students are given coaching and guidance for a period of twelve months for entrance examinations of various medical and non-medical colleges spread across India.

This year, 41 students belonging to downtrodden families made it to top institutions like IIT’s (Indian Institutes of Technologies) and NIT’s (National Institutes of Technologies). So far, six batches of students have been trained and of the 206 students who were provided coaching,140 made it to the top institutes.

“The Army provides quality education to over 10,000 students though its 28 Army Goodwill Schools across Kashmir. I am hopeful students of new batch would achieve similar results next year with top ranks,’’ Corps Commander, 15 Corps, Lt Gen KJS Dhillon said while inaugurating the first batch of medical Super 30.

At Super 30, the students are selected through state-wide entrance examination conducted by the army with its training partner - Center for Social Responsibility and Leadership (CSRL). The students who qualify are provided free lodging, boarding, and educational facilities by the expert faculty who come from different parts of the country.

CSRL project manager Majid Aziz said they accommodate around 50 students every year and provide free coaching and other assistance to the students. “This year we had splendid result. Out of 50 students, 41 managed to get good ranks in JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) mains.’’

A young girl from north Kashmir, Zoaya Zahoor, became the first girl from North Kashmir’s to qualify JEE Advance 2019 and her dream of studying engineering in one top most institutes of the country got fulfilled.

“In Kashmir, students are only aware of JEE Mains and NEET but with the help of this initiative, we came to know about various other competitive exams,’’ said Zahoor who hails from Handwara town and secured 98 rank in the exams.

Another student who also made it to top ranks said the initiative is changing lives of underprivileged students, especially those living in far off areas.

“I always had a dream to seek an admission in the top engineering college of the country. Since I was not from economically well off family I thought my dream will never get realised. This initiative has helped me to fulfil my dream and I was able to get an admission in one of country’s top IIT,” said Vikas Nassir who hails from south Kashmir’s Anantnag district and is J&K topper.