In a bid to level the playing field for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, the Karnataka government's department of school education and literacy will introduce free coaching for competitive exams like CET and NEET in government pre-university colleges.
As reported by Times of India, around 25,000 science stream students will benefit from this program starting this year.
The government will spend Rs 12.5 crore on the project and will select a coaching institute through a tender process. The chosen institute will conduct a test to select students for the program, which will provide coaching across both PU years.
This move aims to address the criticism that competitive exams favor urban students who can afford coaching.
Additionally, as per the news report, the department also plans to reduce the weight of schoolbags by introducing a single notebook for multiple subjects and implementing a 'no-bag day' every third Saturday.
Furthermore, the government plans to launch a face-recognition system to monitor attendance, linked to the Students Achievement Tracking System (SATS), which tracks every student's academic growth. This initiative will be launched on a trial basis soon.
