New Delhi, 14 December 2021 – The Government of Odisha has teamed up with the Edtech company ‘Unacademy’ to provide free coaching to students preparing for IIT-JEE, NEET-UG, and NDA exams. As per the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the government and the firm, free coaching will be offered to 3000 Class 11 students over the course of 3 years. The current plan is to provide free coaching to 1000 meritorious students per year (over 3 years), starting from the year 2022.
Who Can Apply for the Free Coaching Scholarship?
- Currently, the scholarship is only offered to Class 11 students belonging to the state of Odisha.
- Applications are invited from poor and meritorious students from government and non-government schools affiliated to the state board, Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE).
- Students belonging to other boards (CBSE, ICSE, etc.) cannot apply for the scholarship.
- Free coaching for IIT-JEE and NEET-UG are only available for students belonging to the Science stream.
- The NDA free coaching is available for Arts, Science, Commerce, and Vocational stream students.
- Students applying for the scholarship should not have their family income more than INR 6 lakh per annum.
How Will the Free Coaching Scholarship be Allotted?
- The scholarship will be allotted based on two parameters: aptitude test and marks in Class 10.
- While 50% weightage will be given to marks secured in high school, another 50% weightage will be given to the marks secured in the online aptitude test.
- There will be one aptitude test for each scholarship; thus, there will be three aptitude tests in total. Students can select to appear in any one of the test of their choice (IIT, NEET, or NDA coaching).
- The duration of the test will be 1 hour.
How to Apply for the Free Coaching Scholarship?
- Registration for the aptitude test will start from 15 December 2021 and continue till 12 January 2022.
- Students can register to appear for the test online on Unacademy’s Odisha Scholarship test section.
- After qualifying the aptitude test, students have to submit an income certificate.
- In case any selected student does not join the course, the vacancy will be filled from the waiting list of the concerned district to which the student belongs.