School Connect campaign to include awareness on government-provided coaching platform for various entrance exams – The Indian Express

Colleges in Maharashtra have been urged to become nodal centres for SATHEE (Self-Assessment Test and Help for Entrance Exams), a new platform by Union Ministry of Education in association with IIT Kanpur which aims to provide students the opportunity for a self-paced interactive learning and assessment platform to prepare for various competitive entrance exams, virtually.

As Maharashtra’s higher and technical education department has announced second year of ‘School Connect’ campaign — which aims at creating awareness among students from Classes 9 to 12 regarding various higher education opportunities available for them to increase gross enrolment ratio (GER) — providing information on SATHEE is included in the list of objectives along with other schemes by the government to support students seeking higher education.

The state’s higher and technical education department issued a government resolution (GR) on Saturday declaring that the 15-day ‘School Connect 2.0’ campaign will start on January 1, 2025. As a part of the second year of this campaign, universities are expected to provide information on various new aspects of higher education such as Apprenticeship-Embedded Degree Programme (AEDP), Internship, Indian Knowledge System (IKS), Vidyalaxmi Loan Scheme, SATHEE among others, along with awareness on National Education Policy, 2020, and the changes it has brought to the spectrum of higher education.

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Highlighting that the campaign includes awareness on SATHEE, whereas becoming a nodal centre is a separate process, Vikas Chandra Rastogi, the principal secretary for higher and technical education department of Maharashtra said the two are interlinked due to similar target audience. “As SATHEE is launched with an idea to bridge the gap for the students in society who cannot afford the costly entrance exam guidance and coaching, the government of India is looking to create SATHEE centres across different parts of the country and higher education institutions in Maharashtra are urged to become part of it,” he said, while adding that Vice-Chancellors (VCs) of different universities in the state are told to invite expressions of interest from colleges willing to become nodal centres.

‘Coaching culture unaffordable for many’

As nodal centres of colleges will be expected to assign a person along with providing a space to help young students navigate through SATHEE which offers online guidance on various entrance exams such as Joint Entrance Exam (JEE), National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), Central University Entrance Test (CUET), Staff Selection Commission (SSC).

Mumbai University (MU) V-C Dr Ravindra Kulkarni said: “Amid growing coaching culture, which is unaffordable for many, colleges becoming nodal centres for SATHEE will allow students from interiors of a state greater access to this knowledge available through internet.”

The MU has also started preparing an elaborate awareness programme to follow under the School Connect 2.0 that will include educating higher education aspirants on various available options across disciplines through events such as workshops, campus tours etc.

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