Dakshana Entrance Test

Basic question to be solved:

To provide bright students of government schools from weak financial background a platform to succeed in competitive exams such as IIT-JEE, NEET, AIEEE etc.

Perspective

There are many bright students in the district who cannot perform well in competitive exams due to lack of proper guidance, counselling and coaching. To help bright and impoverished students predominantly from rural India to prepare for IIT and medical entrance exams, Dakshana Foundation, an Irvine, California and Pune based organisation, conducts a selection test and provides free residential coaching to eligible students. The students go through rigorous coaching from some of the best teachers, hence providing them an opportunity to raise their level similar to a student from a well off background and appear in the exam of their choice.

Stakeholders

Education Department – Kanker, Dakshana Foundation, District Collector

Criteria for Success

Maximum number of participation of 12th class students from government schools all across the district. The criteria was kept such because this was the first time the test was conducted in the Bastar Region, and will lay the ground work for upcoming years. Additionally, the evaluation of students will help us in identifying the problem areas that students may have, and special focus can be provided to those. More than 271 students appeared for the test out of 318 enrollments, on a very short notice. This also shows the interest of students and the education department in the initiative.

Constraints within the initiative

The level of the test may be slightly high for students, and hence they have to be identified in advance and provided special attention, so that they may perform well in the test.