Govt to launch Shala Asmita Yojana this month: Smriti Irani

Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani has said government will launch Shala Asmita Yojana this month. Briefing media in New Delhi on her Ministry’s achievements during the past two years, she said Yojana aims at tracking the educational journey of close to 25 crore school students from Class I to Class XII across 15 lakh schools in the country. Ms. Irani said it will probably be the world’s largest student tracking system. She said this will lead to better facilities for students.

Expressing concern that the joint entrance examination for admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) sometimes has degree-level questions that a Class 12 student may find hard to solve, Ms Irani said the IITs have assured the government that the questions will be of Class 12 level. She added that such a change would help students who had not undergone coaching at institutes for admission to IITs.

Ms. Irani said the Ministry had talked to the IIT Council about the



problems faced by students, like transition to English for students who have had their education in an Indian language. She said an IIT Pal portal and mobile app was on the cards to help students. These would make available question papers of IITs and also have lectures by renowned professors to help aspirants.

Ms. Irani also said that the Ministry had, through the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), written to the schools that the parent-teacher associations should be taken into confidence before any hike in fees. The Minister said Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat is leading to improvements in basic understanding of students class one and two . She said from this year scheme will extend to class three. 

Ms Irani said for the first time, all NCERT books have been made available free of cost on e-portal. On National Education Policy She said government has received suggestion from 1.1 lakh villages, 5 lakh blogspot , 20 states and others in framing policy.