2 days ago
Why open schooling in demand in Karnataka now? Extra time to prepare for entrance exams
Bengaluru: Even while integrated coaching has become the norm to crack entrance exams, coaching centres in the city have identified a growing trend — students enrolling in National Institute of Open Schooling to focus exclusively on entrance tests.
Many students are opting for home-school in classes 11 and 12 and write board exams through NIOS to spend more time preparing for Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) or National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Examination (NEET), both national-level tests that hold the key to the country's best professional colleges.
"We have an increased demand from parents to open NIOS study centre on campus, where we can train students for the boards on weekends and coach them for entrance exams during weekdays.
We have, therefore, decided to apply for an NIOS licence for the next year owing to the high demand," said Sridhar G, founder of Ace Creative Learning Pvt Ltd which runs Deeksha STEM schools.
"If you look at most of the exams now — NEET, for example — 60% of the people writing it are repeaters, and a large majority who get admission into medical colleges are repeaters. For those who are writing the exam for the first time along with the boards, the biggest handicap is that they do not have enough time to study to compete with others.
So, NIOS gives you the flexibility to spend more time on competitive exams since there is no need to spend mandatory hours in school," he added.
Mahesh Yadav, zonal head, South of Allen Career Institute Pvt Ltd, said: "We have a handful of students now. The trend has started growing in the city and will become the norm in the next two to three years. We are encouraging students, who are motivated to get good ranks, to take up NIOS.
Now, they spend the morning hours in school and evenings in coaching, leaving very little time for self-study."
A mother, who is also a school teacher, has decided to home-school her son for two years as he wants to crack NEET. "Around 24 lakh students took the test last year. With CBSE or ICSE curriculum, it will be too much for him to focus on the competitive exam. Open schooling could be better as it would give him more free time to prepare for NEET.
He will take up entrance coaching in the morning and evening and spend the rest of the time on self-study.
He is self-disciplined and has a drive to crack the test," she said.
Yet another attraction is the financial aspect. "We would also not be spending on school fees and could use the money for his higher education," she added.
V Swaminathan, regional director, NIOS, said there have been success stories of NIOS students cracking entrance tests. "There are several students who are attending coaching classes and parallelly pursuing class 11 and 12. We have students cracking into top institutes like IITs. Recently, the Supreme Court also said NIOS students are eligible for appearing for entrance exams, reaffirming its credibility," he said.
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