In a commendable step, the district administration of Raigarh in Chhattisgarh is providing free coaching for all competitive exams to the economically backward rural students at the block level itself. Free coaching is being provided for UPSC, CGPSC, SSC, Vyapam, Railway and many other competitive exams. Right now, coaching is available for students in Tamnar and Pusaur block, but soon it will be available in all the nine blocks of the district.
An initiative of 2018-batch IAS officer and CEO of Raigarh District Panchayat, Mr. Abinash Mishra, around 300 students are getting free coaching and study materials at the block level, through it. The officer has also finalised talks with companies like TCS to provide jobs to non-technical students from rural background. More than 800 youths will soon get jobs after doing 20 days training with TCS.
Indian Masterminds interacted with IAS officer Abinash Mishra to get more details.
FREE COACHING
Earlier, students preparing for competitive exams like CSE in Raigarh district had to go to metropolitan cities if they wanted to take coaching. And, many promising students of rural areas could not go because of financial constraints and other reasons. But now, the scenario has changed.
These students are getting free coaching for different competitive exams in Rajgarh itself.
“We talked to many companies for this coaching and they agreed to sponsor it with their CSR funds. Currently, it is being given only in two blocks, but soon, it will be started in the remaining seven blocks of the district, as well,” Mr. Mishra said.
Rajgarh has a total of nine blocks. There is a youth centre in every block, where the basic infrastructure needed for coaching, like library, digital screen, etc., was already available. So, coaching is given at these youth centres. Students are first screened through an exam and the ones who get selected are taught free of cost. At present, about 300 students are studying in both the centres. And after coaching starts in the rest of the centres, 800 to 1,000 students will benefit from it.
“We invite teachers from reputed coaching institutes like Kautilya to teach in our centres. Along with this, study material is also provided to the students. And, exams are also taken from time to time to see their progress,” Mr. Mishra said.
JOBS TO NON-TECHNICAL GRADUATES
Other than this, the non-technical graduates who have done BA and B.Sc., and are not able to study further, are being helped by the district administration in getting jobs.
“For this, we talked to India’s largest software company TCS. TCS itself will hire around 500 youths, while another 300 will get placed in companies like HCL and Bajaj Allianz. Here, these youths will get back office work. TCS gives 20 days basic training to the selected candidates. For this, the company takes an exam and handles the rest of the procedure. Right now, 60 youths are being trained under TCS,” Mr. Mishra informed Indian Masterminds.
The free training will be given to the youths by TCS at Raigarh Kharsia Tamnar. After this training, certificates will also be given to the students by the company. This certificate will be valid in TCS as well as in other Indian companies.
