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Virtual Gyan Sewa
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A dedicated team and technology combine to change the face of
education in Punjab, ensuring that advanced education does not
become the preserve of the rich alone.
World Sikh News presents an overview of the efforts of the Gyan
Sewa Team to enable students from rural Punjab to participate in
the competitive examination system in India. |
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 The
trend has been reversed. Kar Sewa has been replaced by Gyan Sewa.
Ruing and cribbing has been replaced with action –timely and
appropriate action. Technology is no longer the preserve only of the
rich who take admissions in the IIMs, IITs and those who can afford
the Akash Institutes and many of their ilks.
Delhi-based Gyan
Sewa Trust has tied up with the Edusat programme (imparting
education through satellite transmission) to impart state of the art
coaching for professional courses, heretofore beyond the domain of
the rural students of Punjab.
Started last
year, the project has been expanded from 60 government schools to
300 schools this year.
“We were tired
of listening to the figures. We wanted to make an impact. We were
disturbed to learn that the percentage of students from rural Punjab
opting for professional courses was an abysmal 3.7 percent as per a
survey of the Punjabi University” says Dr. Maninder Kaur, a trustee
of the Gyan Sewa Trust.
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The Punjab Edusat Society with the cooperation and support of
the Gyan Sewa Trust, runs the project in 299 centres spread over
the entire state of Punjab and takes care of nearly ten thousand
students of government schools, who come from the poor strata of
society unable to pay their basic school fees, leave alone the
huge fees charged by private coaching institutions. |
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Hiring topnotch
professional faculty from
Delhi,
students from rural areas and those who cannot afford expensive
coaching studying in government schools, are painstakingly prepared
to appear in the entrance examinations for professional courses,
such as AIEEE, PMT, IIT and other such courses in the engineering,
medical and other professional fields.
Last week,
another such centre was opened at village Khadoor Sahib by Dr. S.S.
Johal, former Vice Chancellor and Dr. H.S. Kalkat, internationally
known agriculture scientist to run a crash course.
Apart from this
course, the Trust is also conducting coaching classes for students
of government schools in collaboration with
Punjab
government through satellite, which is attended by about 10000
students in government schools throughout
Punjab.
 Gyan Sewa
started the pilot project in April 2006 at village Khadoor Sahib in
Baba Gurmukh Singh Uttam Singh Senior Secondary School, run by Baba
Sewa Singh of Kar Sewa. In the last examinations, almost 70%
students from this centre got admission into one or other
professional courses. Before Gyan Sewa started this project, not
even a single student from this school was able to get admission
into any of the professional courses.
Presently,
the Punjab Edusat Society with the cooperation and support of the
Gyan Sewa Trust, runs the project in 299 centres spread over the
entire state of Punjab and takes care of nearly ten thousand
students of government schools, who come from the poor strata of
society unable to pay their basic school fees, leave alone the huge
fees charged by private coaching institutions.
Satisfied with
the pace of the project, Mr. H.S. Phoolka, Senior Advocate and the
Chairman of the trust gladly states that the gap between the cities
and villages has been bridged and there is no looking back.
Gyan Sewa Trust has prominent personalities on its panel –all keen
to provide the best educational facilities to those who cannot
afford it for whatever reason. Formed in 2006, the Trust includes
eminent writer, Dr. Patwant Singh, leading floriculturist -Mr. Avtar
Singh Dhinsa, the founder of Village Life Improvement Programme -Dr.
Raghbir Singh Bassi and Senior Vice President of Indian Medical
Association -Dr. G.S. Grewal. Dr. Maninder Kaur Phoolka, who did
her post doctorate from Denmark and U.S.A. is in-charge of this
project.
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Let us put Kar Sewa on the back burner for a while and
concentrate on Gyan Sewa. |
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In view of the
firm stand taken by the Trust, the Election Commission of India had
to recently reverse its order of stopping the printing and free
distribution of courseware for nearly ten thousand poor students
studying in government schools of Punjab, enrolled in the Edusat
project, for which it had passed orders declaring it to be a
violation of the Model Code of conduct.
The coaching
provided under the Edusat programme by the Gyan Sewa Trust enables
students to seek into professional courses such as medicine,
engineering, biotechnology and others. Separate entrance
examinations are held by various institutions, colleges and States.
Some of these examinations are held at national level, while some
are held at State or University levels. The pattern of these
examinations is purely objective type and is totally different from
the board examination patterns of Central Board of Secondary
Education or any State Board.
The construction
of the specialized exams is such that students who do not receive
specialized coaching for these entrance examinations, where the
students are trained to take such entrance examinations; it is very
difficult for them to get through in these examinations. There has
been instances, where a student, who has scored above 80% marks in a
Board Examination, could not get admission into engineering college,
but a student, who has secured only 57% marks in the Board
Examination, got admission into professional course, because the
latter student secured more marks in the entrance examinations.
 This is a
serious flaw in the educational system in India. As a result of
this anomaly, private coaching institutions thrive in India and some
of them charge even over one lakh rupees for these coaching
classes. One of the surveys conducted by ESCOM has given a finding
that coaching classes is an industry with annual revenue of over Rs.
10,000 crores.
Due to this
anomaly, the most affected are the students from rural areas, as
coaching centres are concentrated only in big cities. Even poor
students hailing from cities are also affected as they cannot afford
to pay huge sums of fees.
In 2004, the
then President of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam, had called upon NGOs to
come forward to make endeavours to reach out to the rural students
for providing them these coaching facilities.
Taking a lead
from Dr. Kalam’s speech, the trust embarked upon an ambitious
project of “Educational Resources to the Rural Students at their
Door Steps” as is available to their counter parts in big cities.
Two centres were started in villages Khadoor Sahib and Nava Shahr.
In March, 2008, the Punjab Government started Edusat Project i.e.
education through satellite. It established about 95 centres
through out Punjab. The Trust entered into collaborative agreement
with Punjab Edusat Society of the Punjab Government.
The Trust
provided the faculty from Delhi, study materials and assignments to
the Government free of costs and the Government further agreed to
provide its supporting staff and print and distribute the study
material to the students of government schools, free of charges.
The project was a success and over 350 students from government
schools got admission into professional courses.
 Encouraged by
the overwhelming success of the project, the Trust and Punjab Edusat
Society again conducted classes in 2008. Similarly, this year too,
they are running classes at the 300 centres. Depending upon the
need of the students, crash courses are also conducted every year.
The story of the
success of the project cannot be complete without a mention of the
self-effacing, uncorruptible chairperson of the Punjab Edusat
Society, Mr. Krishan Kumar, who is undauntingly and zealously
pursuing the mission of imparting advanced education and soft skills
to rural Punjabis.
Jagmohan Singh
is a commentator based in Ludhiana, Punjab.
He may be contacted at jsbigideas@gmail.com
1 April 2009
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