Govt to bring in IIT preparation app to check coaching menace

Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday appealed to private educational institutions to help the government in improving access, transparency and quality of higher education in India. 

She said this while announcing a slew of initiatives to help students with quality academic content and other support to prepare for IITs. She added that it was also decided that the questions in the IIT-JEE entrance test would conform to Class 12 syllabus.

Speaking at the National Conference  on Reforming & Rejuvenating India’s Higher Education organised by the Education Promotion Society for India (EPSI) in the national Capital, Irani expressed concern over the commercialisation of education. 

She urged private institutions to participate in government’s Unnat Bharat programme, under which premier educational institutions such as IIMs and IITs are adopting neighboring villages and rejuvenating their educational system.

Referring to the “menace of the coaching industry”, Irani said one of the biggest pressures on students preparing for IIT entrance exam is to seek outside help in preparation. 

“We will launch Bharat Vani App, which will provide the students with higher education study material in 22 languages. By the next year, we will provide access to the same content in 100 non-scheduled and tribal languages for greater reach and accessibility. 

We are also coming up with an innovative mobile app and portal, IIT Pal, which will provide engineering aspirants with IIT question papers of the past 50 years. The portal and app will have video lectures by top faculty and audio aid in 13 languages,” she said.

The minister also urged EPSI, which comprises private deemed universities, to help identify elements that are compromising with students’ interest for commercial benefits, thereby, bringing disrepute to the entire sector.

“When we talk about stakeholders, it is important to see who get predominance. I believe it is the students who are the main stakeholders and every policy and reform should revolve in their interest. Currently, higher education in the country is facing ripples. However, I feel looking at an issue as a challenge brings negative connotation, but viewing at it as an opportunity will bring new perspective and inspiration. We need to leverage technology to benefit from the education sector,” she said.

 Appealing for participation by private institutions, she talked about the expansion of MOOC (massive open online course) platform named SWAYAM that has 500 courses to begin with.