Rajasthan govt to provide 15k students free coaching for competitive exams

The Rajasthan government plans to spend over Rs 17 crore this financial year for providing coaching to students for competitive exams. This is substantially higher than the previous year’s figure of Rs 3.5 crore.

‘Mukhyamantri Anuprati Coaching Yojana’ was introduced by Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot in 2021-22. He felt many meritorious students are unable to attend coaching classes and lag in competitive examinations for want of money.

Under the scheme, such students are provided free coaching from reputed coaching institutes so that they can fulfil their dreams. For the current financial year, the state government has allotted Rs 17.15 crore and the number of seats, too, has increased to 15,000.

The state government aimed to provide free coaching to 10,000 students last year and out of more than one lakh applications, around 9,000 students were selected. The government allotted Rs 3.65 crore for the year 2021-22 and spent Rs 3.54 crore.

Students from scheduled caste, scheduled tribe, other backward classes, minority, economically-backward classes and specially-abled — whose family’s annual income is Rs 8 lakh or less — are eligible to avail the benefits of this free coaching scheme.

Under the coaching scheme, students are prepared for various exams, including civil services, Rajasthan Administrative Service or Rajasthan State Subordinate Service Combined Competitive Examination, Rajasthan Eligibility Examination for Teacher (REET), IIT JEE and medical college entrance exams, among others.

Under this scheme, 116 coaching institutes submitted their proposal online to impart coaching for one or two examinations and the state-level committee listed 47 coaching institutions.         

If any student is allotted a coaching institute in another city, the government pays an additional Rs 40,000 per annum for boarding and lodging.

Neeraj Yadav, a resident of Bagru in Jaipur district, was preparing for IIT, but the financial condition of his father was not good. So, he could not send his son for coaching in some big institute. He came to know about Mukhyamantri Anuprati Coaching Yojana and asked Neeraj to apply. Now, Neeraj is preparing for IIT at one of the top coaching institutes.