Bhubaneswar, March 28: Almost all major schools in the city are preparing students for engineering and medical entrance tests as well as board examinations.
The trend started last year with the DAV Public School, Chandrashekharpur launching Super 40 - called so as the intake capacity was 40 and the meritorious students got selected following a rigorous process. Looking at the demand, this year the school launched Prime 40 for its medical aspirants.
Under the current system, students from across all boards - CBSE, ICSE and BSE - are selected on basis of an entrance examination and formed into a separate batch for Class XI and XII. The students are provided with a specially designed "integrated and comprehensive course" that includes the syllabus of both the Class XII and the JEE (main) or the All India Pre Medical Test (AIPMT). The special batch is provided with residential facilities and taught separately during the usual school hours by teachers as well as guest experts.
The trend has been picked up by Mothers' Public School, which provides "integrated medical" and "integrated engineering" classes for its students.
Similarly, the DAV Public School, Unit-VIII has also introduced IGNITE, an integrated course for its IIT and medical aspirants, while the DAV Public School, Pokhariput has started ASPIRE 39 for the medical aspirants.
"The decision to launch such a programme was taken after we had seen that the number of students qualifying for the IITs from Odisha was extremely low. Unavailability of proper coaching was the main reason. While students belonging to the affluent families could go to big cities and join reputed coaching centres paying a huge sum, it was difficult for the other," said regional director of the DAV Institutions, Zone-I, Keshab Chandra Satpathy.
Only 59 students from the state had been able to make it to the IIT in 2014. In 2015, 65 students could qualify for the IITs. Similarly, out of around 37,000 students from the state, who had appeared for the AIPMT last year, only 2,911 could qualify.
"The coaching centres available in the city were also not up to the mark," said Satpathy.
On this, the city-based coaching centres reacted sharply and ruled out poor coaching at the institutes. "Although schools are providing coaching, their teaching lacks quality and the expertise of our trainers, who are equipped with modern methods of problem solving. The methods we teach students are very important to solve problems with speed and accuracy during a specified time limit," said Bibhuti Nayak, a senior faculty at a private coaching centre in Bhubaneswar.
Satpathy said: "We are not only providing the students with coaching at a much subsidised rate, as compared to the market rate, but also extending the service to 10 underprivileged students at free of cost."
While the coaching centres charge around Rs 2 lakh for engineering and medical coaching, the schools have refused to divulge the details of their fee.
The CBSE had, in its circular dated February 6, 2014, directed its affiliated schools to ban running of coaching classes by coaching centres on the school premises.
"But, we are not engaging any private players in the system. This is completely for the benefit of the students and the state at large," said Debendra Pati, a senior teacher of the DAV Public School, Chandrashekharpur.
"The response has been very good, and there is actually a huge demand from parents, who wish to save time spent on shuttling between coaching institutes and schools. It's better when available under one roof," said Sawan Kumar Nayak, an official from the Mothers' Public School.
"Taking an integrated course saves us from the trouble of shuttling from college to coaching centre. The course is well designed and seems easy when taught by our schoolteachers. We can also ask them our doubts without any hesitation," said Richa Mohapatra, a student in the Super 40 batch.
