BIDAR: The district administration in
Bidar has rolled out an initiative to ensure continuity in the education of students from economically weaker sections (EWS) of society. Under the initiative, the district administration has come up with a public private partnership (
PPP) model to help students from underprivileged sections who have cleared SSLC examination obtain free seats at private pre-university (PU) colleges.
The initiative was the brainchild of former Bidar
deputy commissioner PC Jaffar, who launched it in 2014-15. However, the initiative was forgotten following his transfer from the district. However, Bidar
DC Ramachandran R decided to revive the initiative, and owing to his efforts, 645 students were enrolled among 63
private colleges.
In a procedure that was similar to the
counselling held at the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) cell for engineering students, a day-long session was held at the Bidar district headquarters to place the aspiring students in the colleges that have been included in the initiative. “I had to confer with representatives of almost all private colleges in the district to convince them to allocate free seats for these poor students. While colleges belonging to the
Shaheen Group of Institutions readily agreed, it took more effort to convince others, Ramachandran told TOI.
The administration has received applications from 1,267 students seeking admission to private colleges. The students will be admitted based on merit, said the DC. Ramchandran said that he had merely resuscitated the programme, the credit for which rightly belonged to Jaffar. Ramachandran expressed hope of the initiative, in addition to helping students from vulnerable sections scaling greater heights in life, would inspire them to work for the welfare of society. “That is one of the aims of this programme,” he said.