Wednesday 24 / April / 2024
Muscat: Indian students in Oman, who are keen to pursue engineering and medical courses in their home country, are facing a dilemma as there are fewer coaching centres in Oman that can help them to prepare for the competitive entrance examinations for such courses.
As the entrance exams are held in the first week of May, many parents are planning to send their children back to India so that they can attend coaching classes prior to the exams.
Indian students in Oman said proper coaching is essential for securing a merit seat in one of the leading colleges in India.
“Coaching is needed to clear the entrance examination with good results as the papers are quite tough,” said Kiran Varghese, a 12th standard student in one of the Indian schools in Oman.
Every year, more than 1000 students pass out from class XII in Oman. All these students are eligible to take part in the entrance examinations conducted by the central and state government of India.
According to the data available, all over India, around 50,000 medical seats are available, with colleges being registered with the Medical Council of India (MCI).
The engineering colleges have nearly 15 lakh seats. In addition to this, for engineering there are some 10,000 seats available at 17 IITs, 15,000 at 25 NITs and 1,000 at IIITs.
However, millions of students take the examinations to obtain admission to engineering and medical colleges.
“When millions take the examinations, the competition is tough; only the best can get a merit seat. If the rank is too low, then we have to go for paid seats in private colleges, which is unaffordable for the majority,” explained Varghese’s father.
“So we are forced to send our children to India to join coaching centres,” he added.
According to many parents, the online training available is not that effective.
However, the Bahwan International Institute Technology does run a coaching centre in Oman for IIT and JEE aspirants.
According to IITians, the online tutors have been trained in Oman for last eight years, with incredible results being produced for securing merit positions in JEE/Medican/SAT.
“Last year, we enrolled more than 542 students for the JEE and SAT exam preparation and many of our students scored good marks in the exams,” Pankaj Sharma of askIITians told the Times of Oman (TOO).
“This year’s enrolment is underway. Currently, we are conducting career counselling seminars, and have gotten a huge response this year and are hoping to see more than 300 per cent growth in this country,” Sharma added.
Meanwhile, a Muscat-based businessman, who is providing coaching for post-graduate business courses in association with premier business institutes in India, said operating a coaching centre for engineering and medical courses in Oman is not financially viable.
“To bring the faculty from India is quite difficult and moreover, students are always busy with tuitions,” said Jose Chacko, who runs a business post-graduate learning centre in Muscat.
For the time being, another businessman and his friends are planning to open a coaching centre.
“We are planning to open a crash coaching centre here for students, who are planning to write entrance exams for the Kerala state; so far we are getting a good response from the parents,” John Philips Mathew said.
Some students stated that online coaching classes helped them understand the model of the exams.
“I am attending an online tutoring class, but it is not that effective,” Ribin Raju a student who is preparing for the exams said.
“Even though it helps me to know the exams pattern and structure,” he added.
According to a teacher from one of the Indian Schools, many have opened coaching centres in the past, but they winded up their operations pretty soon.
“There is a need for a good coaching centre here. Nowadays, to clear the examination, you have to be the best. Those days of preparing for an examination at home are gone. Experts are required to train students,” said the teacher, who refused to be named.
Speaking to TOO, Wilson V. George, chairman, Board of Directors, Indian Schools, said in the near future the Indian Schools will start providing coaching to the students.
“So far we don’t have any official programme to prepare our students for the competitive exams, but in the near future we will implement some programmes,” George said.
Some of the parents also noted that the reason they send their children back to India is that the coaching available in Oman is expensive. So their children are currently getting ready to fly back to their home country after their board exams.
