Remedial guidance

Updated on: Thursday, May 20, 2010

Kolkata: Female students can now avail of the coaching classes offered by the Backward Classes Welfare Cell of Calcutta University (CU) under the UGC scheme of XIth plan along with candidates from the backward communities.

“UGC has okayed inclusion of women candidates from all categories in the remedial coaching plan from this year,” said Nitish Biswas, joint registrar and head, Department of Backward Community Welfare Cell, CU. The varsity authority is planning to implement the proposal from the ensuing session.

The remedial coaching scheme aims to help SC, ST, OBC and minority community students improve their academic skills and prepare them for various Entry-in-Service exams, including National Eligibility Test (NET) and State Eligibility Test (SET).

According to the University Grant Commission’s (UGC) XIth plan, the guideline is divided into three schemes. The first scheme deals with remedial coaching to improve candidates’ academic skills and linguistic proficiency in various subjects. Providing coaching to prepare students for Entry-in-Service exams and ensuring implementation of government policies fall under the second scheme. The final part conducts coaching programmes for eligible students from backward classes appearing for NET.

UGC has granted Rs 7 lakh yearly for implementation of these schemes. The session for this year is expected to start from June, 2010. Application forms and other information will be available on the CU website from next week. A total of 1,760 students have been given coaching so far. “Around 600 students appeared for the School Service Commission (SSC) exam under our guidance during last session. Of this 250 candidates were called for personality test which proves to be a huge success,” said Biswas.

“We finished our mock test classes on April 30 for candidates who have been appearing for the personality test since May 3 this year,” said Biswas. As per the new UGC plan, few CU affiliated colleges like Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose College, Lal Baba College (Howrah), Netaji Nagar Day College and Gour Mohan Sachin Mandal Mahavidyalaya (Lakshmikantapur) have also been granted right to run these remedial coaching classes.

“Most of our students are from the lower income group families. Due to financial instability, they often cannot afford higher studies or prepare for the Entry-in-Service exams. We, under the aegis of Backward Classes Welfare Cell of Calcutta University, aim to provide them with coaching under the UGC scheme to help them upgrade their academic skills and secure administrative and other responsible jobs,” said Prof Sanat Naskar, coordinator of the coaching scheme and former head, Department of Bengali, CU.

Remedial guidance

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