Scholarship Coaching Schemes

FREE COACHING & ALLIED SCHEME FOR THE CANDIDATES
BELONGING TO MINORITY COMMUNITIES
(Effective from 17.7.2007)

1.  Background

1.1 The scheme aims to empower the minority communities by assisting the economically weaker sections of students among them through coaching institutions for enhancing their skills and capabilities to make them employable in industries, services and business sectors in addition to the government sector. It has built-in resilience to adapt to the market dynamics on a continuous basis so that the target groups are not deprived of the professional acumen demanded by the changing/emerging market needs and opportunities for employment at domestic as well as international levels.

1.2 Separate schemes for providing coaching to students belonging to scheduled caste, minority communities and backward classes were being implemented from 6l Five Year Plan. These separate . schemes were amalgamated with effect from September, 2001 into a combined Scheme of Coaching and Allied Assistance for Weaker Sections including Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes and Minorities. After creation of the Ministry of Minority Affairs, a new scheme called "Free Coaching & Allied Scheme for candidates belonging to minority communities has been formulated keeping in view the emerging trends of employment in the era of economic reforms, liberalization and globalization.

2. OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the scheme are to assist students belonging to minority communities by way of special coaching for the following:-

a) Qualifying examinations for admission in technical/professional courses such as engineering, law, medical, management, information technology etc., and - language/aptitude examinations for seeking admission in foreign universities.

b) Competitive examinations for recruitment to Group 'A' , 'B' , 'C and 'D' services and other equivalent posts under the Central and State governments including police/security forces, public sector undertakings, Railways, banks, insurance companies as well as autonomous bodies; and

c) Coaching for jobs in the private sector such as in airlines, shipping, information technology (IT), business process outsourcing (BPO) and other IT enabled services, hospitality, tours and travels, maritime, food processing, retail, sales & marketing, bio-technology and other job oriented courses as per the emerging trend of employment.

d) Remedial coaching at undergraduate and post graduate level to improve the academic knowledge and enable the student to catch up with the rest of the class and complete the course successfully.

3- IMPLEMENTING AGENCIES AND ELIGIBILITY

The following types of organizations will be eligible for running the coaching programmes under this scheme:-

i) All institutes in the Government sector including universities and autonomous bodies engaged in the coaching activities.

ii) All institutes in the Government sector including universities and autonomous bodies engaged in imparting remedial coaching to the students belonging to minority communities.

iii) University/colleges in private sector engaged in coaching activities including deemed universities.

iv) Institutes in the private sector engaged in coaching activities/job oriented coaching/training for placement in private sectors, which is a trust, company, partnership firm, or society registered under relevant law and of relevant industry, bodies or institutes, preferably identified by them.

The coaching institutes should fulfil the following conditions :

a) The institutes should have required number of well qualified faculty members either on its pay roll or on part time basis.

The proposals received from institutes will be scrutinized, processed in the Ministry and placed before a Committee consisting of the following members, for selection of the institutes for funding:-

v) The Committee may, for a specific period not exceeding one financial year, co-opt any other professional as member(s), as and when required.

5- ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR CANDIDATES/ STUDENTS

i) Candidates must have secured the requisite percentage of marks in the qualifying examination prescribed for admission into the desired courses/recruitment examinations.

ii) Only candidates belonging to the minority communities having total family income from all sources not exceeding Rs.2.50 lakh per annum will be eligible under the scheme.

iii) Benefits of coaching under the scheme can be availed by a particular student once only, irrespective of the number of chances; he/she may be entitled to in a particular competitive examination. The coaching institution will be required to take an affidavit from the student that they have not taken any benefit under this scheme.

iv) In case, where the examination is conducted in two stages i.e. preliminary and main, the candidates will be allowed to take coaching of the preliminary as well as the main examination, but coaching for the main examination will be allowed only to those who have qualified the preliminary examination for the year/examination concerned.

b) The institutes should have necessary infrastructure such as premises, library, requisite equipment etc. to run the coaching classes/training centers. This condition will not apply for field recruitment of constables and equivalent in the police/security forces and railways.

c) The institutes should have experience of imparting coaching for a period not less than three years provided that those functioning for less than three years may be considered only if their success rates are significantly high.

d) Coaching institutes should have a minimum success rate of 15%. A three year moving' average could be considered for this purpose. Coaching institutes having better success rate will be given priority.

e) Coaching institutes which are imparting coaching for entrance examinations and whose students have been able to obtain admission in reputed colleges/institutes, will be given priority under this category.

f) Coaching for industry specific courts/jobs will be encouraged for private sector jobs.

4. Derails of procedure:-

i) The Ministry of Minority Affairs will advertise the details of the scheme and invite proposals from the coaching/training institutes by 30th April of every year.

ii) While the institutes in government sector can send proposals in the prescribed proforma directly to the Ministry of Minority Affairs, the organizations in the private sector including non-governmental organizations (NGOs) should submit their proposals through the State government/UT administration concerned.

iii) The State governments/UT administrations will conduct necessary inspection of the coaching institute with respect to eligibility and feasibility of the project proposal and forward the proposal with specific recommendations to the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

(iv) The grant in aid released by the Ministry shall be deposited directly into an account opened by the institute for this purpose.

(v) The grant-in-aid shall be released as per norms prescribed in the General Financial Rules and other appropriate decisions af'the Ministry level.

vi) Funds will be released to the institutes in first installment of 70% and second installment of 30%.

vii) Funds will be released in subsequent years after inspection of the organization by Central Government/State Government or any other agency designated by the Ministry.

viii) Sanction of subsequent year proposal will depend on level of success rate of the coaching institutes in competitive examinations and placement for jobs in private sectors.

ix) Students covered under the scheme shall have to attend all classes. In the event of any student remaining absent for more than 15 days, without any valid reason or leaving the coaching midway, the entire expenditure incurred on the candidate will be recovered from the institute concerned.

6. FUNDING

(i) 100 % financial assistance will be provided to the selected coaching/training institutes and the institutes imparting remedial tuition.

(ii) Stipend will be given by the Ministry for maintenance of the students. The details of the rates of financial-assistance are given below:-

viii) The institute shall be solely responsible in ensuring that only students of meritorious standing are admitted for coaching.

ix) The institute shall provide the bank account and full address for crediting the sanctioned coaching fee directly into the institute account.

x) After completion of the coaching programme, the institute shall immediately submit the utilization certificate and audited accounts certified by a Chartered Accountant to the Ministry of Minority Affairs, along with the following documents:-

(a) Income and expenditure account/balance sheet for the year including receipt & payment account of the institute in respect of funds received during the year.

(b) A certificate to the effect that the institution has not received any other grant for the same purpose from any other Ministry/Department of the Government of India, State/UT Government and any other Government/Non-Government organization.

xi) The selected institute should be willing to mobilize its own resources for smooth conduct of the approved programme. They shall be duty bound to ensure that neither the coaching/training programme nor the payment of stipend to the enrolled candidates suffer due to delay, if any, in release of funds.

8. MONITORING:

Monitoring of the progress made by the grantee institutes will be carried out as follows:

i) The institute shall submit periodic progress report of the coaching classes as prescribed in the sanction order to the Ministry of Minority Affairs and the State Government/UT administration.

ii) The institute shall submit information of employment secured by the candidates coached by them in Government and placements secured

viii) Efforts will be made to maintain a reasonable geographical distribution of funds, based on the geographical distribution of minorities. The relevant benchmark will be the address of the students coached.

7. TERMS AND CONDITIONS TO BE COMPLIED WITH BY THE COACHING INSTITUTES

i) The institute shall maintain full details of name, address, and telephone number etc. of the candidates enrolled for coaching programme and furnish this information to the Ministry.

ii) The institute shall maintain full records of each candidate admitted like age, gender, educational qualifications, bank account number etc.

iii) The admissible amount payable towards stipend shall be paid to the candidates on monthly basis through their bank account number.

iv) Separate account will be maintained by the institute for the funds released by the Ministry that will be made available to the Ministry of Minority Affairs as and when requisitioned for inspection.

v) The institutes shall utilize the funds for the specified purposes only. The grantee institute shall give an undertaking that in the event of acting in contravention of this condition, it will refund the amount received with 18% penal interest and any other action, as deemed necessary by the government.

vi) The coaching institution will also be required to take an affidavit from the student that they have not taken benefit earlier under this scheme or any other similar scheme funded by the government.

vii) The institution shall submit a certificate accepting the terms and conditions laid down by the Ministry of Minority Affairs and furnish a bond with two sureties in the name of the competent authority responsible for actual implementation of the scheme and also responsible for furnishing of accounts of the grant sanctioned.