Delhi Trust imparts free lessons to poor students in Punjab

New Delhi, Mar 30 (UNI) Adopting a novel technique of imparting free coaching to the wards of poor families aspiring entrance into professional courses, Delhi-based Gyan Sewa Trust will impart lessons to the needy students of government schools at 50 centres in Punjab through satellite.

In collaboration with the Punjab government-run Edusat Society, constituted under 'Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan' programme, the Trust would telecast live interactive lessons from the Centralized Studio at Mohali.

The Society established 300 centres in the state and the Trust has been allocated 50 centres for imparting a six-week free crash coaching course to aspirants for admission in medical, engineering and biotech courses after their schooling.

Each of the 50 centres will have the facility to communicate with the teaching faculty of the Trust at Centralized Studio during live lessons.

The Trust has engaged the ''best teaching faculty'' from Delhi to impart lessons free of cost at the chosen centres in Punjab.

According to Mr HS Poolka, Chairman of the Trust, they would conduct the six-week crash course with each district of Punjab having at least two centres.

Since April 2006, the Gyan Sewa Trust is running two centres in Punjab at village Khadoor Sahib and Nawa Shahr and the teaching faculty from Delhi visits there to provide coaching to the resource-poor students.

The Trust strives to provide rural students the educational resources which are available in the metropolitans and that too at their doorsteps, Mr Poolka said.

Concerned about the declining standards of education in Punjab, eminent Punjabis in the national capital founded the Trust with eminent personalities on its board, including writer Patwant Singh, former UPSC chairman SJS Chhatwal and Mr HS Poolka, senior advocate as it Chairman. Dr Maninder Kaur Poolka is the Project Director.

According to Mr Poolka, the main study material and the prominent coaching centres are mainly located in Delhi or Kota, Rajasthan.

The Trust aims at sending the same coaching material to every village in Punjab to enable rural students to compete for entrance to top most professional courses, he added.

In April 2007, a crash course was held at village Khadoor Sahib, which was inaugurated by Punjab Education Minister Upinderjit Kaur and the students showed encouraging results.

This year again, in addition to the regular programme, the Trust will also conduct the crash course at village Khadoor Sahib.

Mr Krishan Kumar, an IAS officer, Director General School Education, who also heads the Punjab Edusat Society said the students of rural areas and small towns were deprived of education facilities available to their counterparts in the big cities.

With a view to prove that there were talented students in rural areas but they lagged behind due to non-availability of education resources, the Trust has started the coaching in villages, Mr Poolka said.

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