Greater Chennai Corporation model schools to prepare kids for IITs

CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Corporation has planned to set up model schools to equip students to face competitive entrance exams of premier educational institutions in the country such as IITs . Officials said the idea of model schools is the brain-child of principal secretary to chief minister T Udhayachandran.

To begin with, the corporation school in Nungambakkam will be upgraded as a model with necessary facilities and labs to train students in biology, physics, chemistry and maths. As per a recent council resolution, a total of 160 students from Classes 11 and 12, including 80 boys and 80 girls, will be identified to be trained for an academic year.

"Our main focus is to push our children into premier institutes like IITs. We will also give them special training to crack exams like JEE and NEET," said city corporation commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi .

He said the government has tied up with agencies to provide specialised teachers to train the students. "We will see a change in results in the coming months. We review the attendance of students and teachers. If the attendance is low for some students, we urge the teachers to follow up with their parents. Apart from main exams, these schools will also give special attention on spoken English," the commissioner said.

The corporation has estimated that it will cost about 1.8 crore to train 160 students and to give them food. The programme will soon be expanded to many other schools across the city in the coming months. Also, about 15 teachers have been identified for the programme. During the training, the students will stay in hostels.

Officials said the corporation has been constantly giving exposure to the students on various fronts to improve STEM education. "Further, we also review the weekly test results of the students and follow up with them," the commissioner added.

Recently, the corporation launched a video featuring a voice-over from noted actor Vijay Sethupathy on the types of services provided by the model schools and how they would benefit the students.