Underprivileged students to have a 'SATHEE' for JEE, NEET

New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Education is set to launch a platform that will give students self-paced interactive learning and assessment to prepare for competitive and other exams, according to University Grants Commission Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar.

Students, who are unable to afford coaching for various competitive exams for pursuing higher education in engineering and medicine, are now going to immensely benefit from 'SATHEE'.

The platform - Self Assessment Test and Help for Entrance Exams (SATHEE) - has been prepared in association with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur.

The Ministry of Education also says that through 'SATHEE', the faculty of the country's renowned IIT institutes and IISc Bangalore will help train students across the country.

The 'SATHEE' platform for students across the country will come into existence by next week.

Till now, free coaching was being provided by the Central government for preparing students for civil services examination in many institutions like Jamia Millia Islamia and Banaras Hindu University.

However, now going a step further, students will be able to get free training for various engineering exams, NEET and other competitive exams, including JEE. All the expenses incurred on this arrangement will be borne by the government.

This new platform from the Union Ministry of Education aims to provide Indian students with the opportunity of a self-centred interactive learning and assessment platform to prepare for competitive and other exams. According to the Education Ministry, the purpose of SATHEE is to help students learn concepts and focus on their weak areas.

For this, the faculty of IIT and IISc will help the students across the country. Special videos will be prepared by these faculties on various topics which can be of immense help to the students appearing in competitive examinations.

In Delhi government schools, students are being provided guidance for exams like NEET and JEE. Special instructions have also been given to government school teachers in this regard regarding students seeking extra help.

This year a total of 1,141 children from government schools in Delhi qualified the JEE Mains and NEET. As many as 648 children of Delhi government schools have successfully cleared NEET and 493 the JEE Mains.

These children, who have been successful in the examinations, are from poor families and live in adverse conditions. Among those who passed the NEET exam, 199 are boys and 449 are girls while 404 boys and 89 girls have successfully cleared the JEE. Significantly, providing another relief to the economically weaker students, it has been decided to abolish the tax on various competitive examinations. With the implementation of this decision, the fees for many examinations like NEET, UGC NET, JEE will be reduced and students appearing in these examinations will get its direct benefit. This decision has been taken recently by the GST Council. According to the students, this will have a positive impact on many examinations conducted by the National Testing Agency.