SC and OBC Students Get Yet Another Government Uplift for Education

Scheduled Caste (SC) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) candidates now get yet another uplift from the government. The Ministry of Social Justice has fixed upon 28 coaching institutes all over the country to provide good quality coaching for them to attend competitive job oriented exams.

The selection of the institutes were done on the basis of suggestions made by states and UTs which gave proposals of at least five training institutes with proven track records of success, according to a senior ministry official.

"The selection was done by a committee headed by Special Secretary, Social Justice Ministry after the guidelines of the Scheme of Free Coaching for SC and OBC Students was revised in June this year," the official said.

Earlier the procedure was that, the ministry would invite applications from institutions which offer training for competitive exams. The proposals were later reviewed by a committee that screen the institutes and shortlisted them.

The decision of the ministry is that entire expenditure incurred by Dalit and backward class students on coaching for competitive examinations would be taken care of under the revised scheme.

"Earlier, the maximum ceiling of coaching fees paid to institution per candidate was Rs 20,000. Now we will fund the entire expenditure on coaching," the official said.

In order to give quality coaching to SC and OBC candidates, to make them ready for the competitive exams, the central sector scheme of free coaching for SC and OBC students was revised. This would help them succeed in obtaining appropriate jobs in public or private sector, he added.

The criteria for the students is that they should belong to SC and OBC categories having a total family income from all sources of Rs 6 lakh or less per annum are eligible to avail benefits under the scheme.

The coaching will be given for courses such as Group A and B examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), various Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs), Officers Grade examinations conducted by banks, insurance companies and public sector undertakings.

Others includes premier entrance examinations in Engineering (IIT-JEE and AIEEE), medical (AIPMT), professional courses like management (CAT) and law (CLAT) along wit eligibility tests like SAT, GRE, GMAT and TOEFL.

At the end of the 3rd year of empanelment, the performance of these centres willbe reviewed based on the results SC and OBC candidates achieve.