New Delhi: WIth the aim to promote educational opportunities among girl students and address the challenge of lower girl enrolment rates in engineering colleges, the CBSE's Udaan scheme was launched Friday.
Udaan aims to provide a platform that empowers girl students and provides them with better learning opportunities.
Human resource development (HRD) ministry programme is designed to provide a comprehensive platform to deserving girl students aspiring to pursue higher education in engineering and assist them to prepare for the IIT-JEE while studying in Classes 11 and 12.
"The project aims at addressing the lower enrollment of girls in engineering colleges. Therefore it is envisaged as the first step towards achieving this larger goal of addressing the quality gap between school education and engineering entrance, by addressing the three dimensions of education - curriculum design, transaction and assessment," a Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) communique said.
The programme also aims to "enrich" and "enhance" teaching and learning of science and mathematics at the senior secondary level.
"Out of 14,575 applications received 946 girl students from across the country have been selected to be a part of this programme. 54 girl students were from six union territories and a total of 117 from northeastern states.
"Most of these girls come from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds and have shown excellent academic performance in school. Of these girls, 305 have parental income less than Rs.1 lakh," the statement said.
All the girls have given specially prepared content in the form of videos, text and practice tests on a tablet.
They have access to a helpline where they can post their queries and doubts which will be resolved through weekend contact classes conducted in 52 cities across the country.
They will also be provided financial assistance based on the number of reward points they collect during the course of the program through the assessment process built in the programme.
"The girls will accrue points on doing well in weekly assessments, and financial assistance proportionate to their accrued points will be given by the CBSE when they get admission in IITs/NIITs/CFTIs," the statement said.
As part of the free of cost programme, students will get material prepared by the students of Indian Institute of technology (IIT) Delhi, BITS Pilani and teachers of CBSE affiliated schools.
Speaking at the launch, HRD Minister Smriti Irani said: "Udaan is not just an opportunity to support the studies of the girl students, it is much beyond that.
"An effort to provide opportunity to brilliant girls of our country to achieve their potential and participate in nation building. Empowering girl students will also have a cascade beneficial effect for future generations."
