Professional education dreams of over 15,000 students from rural areas in the 30 districts of the state have run into serious trouble.
Professional education dreams of over 15,000 students from rural areas in the 30 districts of the state have run into serious trouble. Outsourcing the coaching of these students for Common Entrance Test (CET) 2011 has been virtually scrapped. And the students will now have to depend on Chandana, the Doordarshan’s Kannada satellite channel, for their CET preparations.
According to statistics, about 14,000 students had attended rural CET coaching last year and 35% of them became eligible for free seats under rural quota, said an official in the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), Bangalore on the condition of anonymity.
The government, in its various promotional campaigns, had projected that rural CET coaching would be continued this year too and the centres would be increased from 110 to 150.
“In Sakleshpur taluk of Hassan district, over 200 parents have sent representations to the government to retain the present system of rural CET coaching. But we received a letter from the government that instead of manual coaching, the CET training will now be imparted through a television channel. But what good would that be? Our children cannot clear their doubts over TV,” said Veena Gowda of Sakleshpur.
“The rural CET training was a boon to our children. Most of us were not able to send them to private training centres nor were we able to help them personally as our own knowledge level was not up to the mark. Now, with that system gone, there are little chances of our children being able to compete with urban children who get all the facilities, including CET training by experts in subjects like Maths, Science and English language,” said Chandrappa, a resident of Malavalli in Mandya district.
Similar views have been expressed by parents and teachers in Shravanabelagola, Belur (Hassan) and Kushalnagar (Kodagu district) Keshavnath of Buntwal had a valid apprehension. “Many children did not join the CET training centres in urban areas in the hope that they would get the benefit of rural CET coaching organised by the government. The private CET training centres in urban areas like Mangalore were full in January for the courses commencing in April-May 2011,” he said.
A private tutorial in Mangalore, whose students include those from Bangalore, provides CET training for a minimum of six hours daily for 90 days, to make it effective and the cover the syllabus.
According to the government plan, TV training will be imparted for six hours daily for 35 days and the total training will be for 210 hours.
“According to the new plans, the training will be telecast on the Chandana channel, three weeks before and after PU board exams which will give adequate time for the students to study. But what good is training without teacher-student interaction, weekly tests and evaluation?” asked KEA officials.
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