How a Successful Academic Alliance worked towards empowering the underprivileged students.

Resonance's Social Initiative at JNV Sitapura, Bundi (Rajasthan) with Dakshana Foundation has produced 250 selections in prestigious IITs in last 7 years with 70% success rate

It's a common adage that "Knowledge knows no barriers". The saying has proved itself true every time we acknowledge students turning their odds into success and their adversities into opportunities. Such is the story of Vivek Muskan (All India Rank - 1582, JEE (Advanced) 2017), a JNV Sitapura - Bundi (Rajasthan) student, who belongs to a lower middle class family in the Kalyanchak village of Munger district in Bihar. With his father being a Government clerk, he had limited resources to his access. But his dreams were bigger and fortune good enough to get him the help and support he needed to fulfil them. His school teacher, Mr. Shivnandan noticed his exceptional ability to do quick calculations while doing mathematical problems. During his 5^th class, Mr. Shivnandan taught him and motivated him for appearing for JNV Selection Test (JNVST). He prepared and successfully secured a seat in the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) Munger. Later in 2015, he prepared for Navodaya Dakshana Selection Test (NDST) and got into JNV Bundi (Rajasthan) wherein the entire cost of his coaching was then borne by Resonance and Dakshana. After two years of rigorous coaching and mentoring by the top-class faculties of Resonance, he successfully cleared the most sought after and the toughest exam in India with an All India Rank (AIR) of 1582 in JEE (Advanced) 2017 It is a moment of great pride for him and his family and we, at Resonance are feeling at peace for making another contribution to the society.

But how often do we witness such success stories? Saying that 1 in a 100 such students actually achieves his goal would be an exaggeration. The actual number is still just a very few among thousands and lakhs. The accounted reason is a lack of appropriate support and funding. They need money but that alone wouldn't be of much help unless they are shown the right direction towards success.

The Beginning

As a first step towards the successful future of these students two major changes occurred in the history of education in India:

1.     For the students coming from underprivileged sections of the society, various schemes were envisaged to facilitate their entry into the mainstream of social framework. One such unparalleled and successful experiment in the field of education was the setting up of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) Schools in the country in 1985. These schools, under the aegis of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) are fully residential campuses with all the necessary amenities (Food, accommodation, consumables, etc.) provided for the students completely free of cost. The unique eligibility criteria of the JNV Selection Test (JNVST) ensures adequate intake of students from the under-privileged students from the rural areas of those districts, where the schools are located. Almost every district in the country has one JNV school which gives admission to the students in class 6^th on the basis of their performance in JNVST. Few admissions are also taken in class 9^th and 11^th depending upon the vacancies (if any). The personalized care & innumerable opportunities (both academics and sports) provided at JNV schools, truly transforms lives of its students.

2.     Another successful experiment was the evolution of Kota's Coaching Institutes. This remarkable educational hub, has been providing exceptionally good results in JEE (Advanced) (earlier known as IIT-JEE), JEE-Main (earlier known as AIEEE) and Medical Entrance Examinations like NEET (earlier known as AIPMT/CPMT) and AIIMS. These exams act as a gateway to the prestigious Institutes in India like IITs, NITs, AIIMS & other eminent Engineering and Medical Colleges/ Universities.

Resonance Eduventures Ltd., established in 2001, is one of the largest institutes of this educational city (www.resonance.ac.in). Apart from providing quality education to the Engineering, Medical, Commerce & Law and various other entrance examination aspirants, it also pledges to bring an unprecedented change in the society through its social initiatives.

The Dream that institutionalized Excellence: Resonance and JNV Bundi

Mr. R K Verma, Founder and Managing Director, Resonance Eduventures Ltd., a son of the soil, had always dreamt of contributing back to the society by educating the students towards their dream destination of IITs. Mr. Verma himself comes from an extremely humble village background from Kota district of Rajasthan and has faced all the odds while he did his B.Tech. from IIT Madras in 1994.  Mr. Verma's aspiration to empower the underprivileged students of society took wings when he thought to combine the aforementioned two experiments in JNV Bundi (Rajasthan) for a socially relevant cause.

Resonance Eduventures Ltd. approached the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) for the collaboration at JNV Bundi (Rajasthan) for the academic session of   2009-10 and onwards JNV Bundi is approximately 35 km away from Kota City where Resonance has its Headquarter. The then Joint Commissioner (Administration) at NVS, Mr. Alok Verma, IFS, readily facilitated the initiation of the program at JNV Bundi with Resonance. He along with the then principal, Mr. R L Mali agreed to have a separate batch exclusively for JEE-Advanced (then IIT-JEE) coaching at JNV Bundi after screening the deserving students through a selection test. The special batch was kept apart from the regular students, who were studying in class 11th and 12th. To operationalize the partnership with JNV Bundi, Resonance started off by initiating the following:

1.     Selection Process for Students - The selection test i.e. ResoNET^#  (Resonance National Entrance Test) was customized and conducted exclusively for the JNV students in the Jaipur Region of NVS. The students moving from Class 10th to Class 11th are eligible to participate in the ResoNET. Initially, the students were mainly from three states: Rajasthan, Haryana & Delhi which belonged to Jaipur regional office of NVS.

(Note: ResoNET^# is conducted for the admission into Yearlong Classroom Contact Programmes (YCCPs) of JEE (Main+Advanced) courses at Resonance.)

2.     Financial Support - There was no fee charged from the students. 100% of the fee was borne solely by the Resonance for initial three batches. The logistics, study material, faculty commutation to the location, etc. were taken care of by Resonance.

The devised formula for excellence began to bear its fruits ever since its inception. This successful association began to gain popularity across the nation and was applauded in various Media publications across the nation.

The Formation of the Successful Alliance: Resonance and Dakshana at JNV Bundi

            The Dakshana Foundation (www.dakshana.org) is an NGO founded by a USA based entrepreneur, Mr. Mohnish Pabrai. The NGO actively works at the grassroot levels to enable students to excel in their career. It aims to change the status of underprivileged students by facilitating quality education for them.  Prior to Resonance-JNV collaboration at Bundi in 2009, Dakshana was in partnership with other coaching institutes at JNV Bundi. However, due to several procedural issues, the result was not up to the mark during that period. This resulted in discontinuation of Dakshana's association at JNV Bundi for few years.

            The exceptionally high success rates for selection of students provided by systematic methodology of Resonance in the results IIT-JEE, motivated Dakshana. Excited by this, Dakshana again began to explore possibilities of a formal collaboration with Resonance & JNV Bundi. The shared vision of the two entrepreneurs, Mr. R K Verma and Mr. Mohnish Pabrai culminated into the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) between Dakshana Foundation, JNV Bundi and Resonance Eduventures Ltd.

            The partnership started in 2012 and it evolved in due course of time, when Dakshana offered to support this venture in two major ways:

1.     Selection Process for Students - Like the ResoNET, the "Navodaya Dakshana Selection Test" (NDST) as conducted by Dakshana since 2012 is also for students moving from Class 10^th to Class 11^th. The student's eligibility for the NDST is decided by the local JNV school administration and approx. 10,000 students appear in this test. Out of these appeared students, around 400 Dakshana Scholars gets selected based on their NDST performance and other relevant socio-economic parameters as finalized by The Dakshana Foundation. After selection in NDST, the selected students are eligible and are suitably placed at a particular location (like JNV Bundi) for receiving free coaching for IIT entrance examination.

2.     Financial Support - After the formal association started, the cost sharing arrangements were also discussed between the Dakshana and Resonance. Presently, 50% of the coaching fee is paid by the Dakshana and the remaining 50% is borne by the Resonance.

The JNV Bundi batch is increasingly becoming more diverse with respect to its geographical and social classification. With the excellence in coaching, students from different parts of the country are now becoming a part of this batch aiming for a better and secured future. The details of the diversity can be explained by using the data trends over the years.

Table: State-wise demographic distribution over the years (Batch 2011 to 2017)

The geographical distribution of selected students at JNV Bundi over the years has become more representative in terms of its Pan-India inclusiveness. In the initial batch of 2011, primarily there were students only from 2 states, namely Rajasthan and Haryana. The recent batch of 2017 included students from as high as 11 states of India.

Apart from geographical diversity, over the years the selection criteria have improved the inclusion of students from socially disadvantaged sections i.e. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). In 2017, the batch was having an equitable distribution of students. This also proves to be an important consideration while designing the eligibility and selection criteria of the qualifying exams for JNV Students across the country who appear for NDST.

The Rising Graph of Success

During the past years, there has been a visible tradition of excellence that continues to surprise many. There is a consistent trend that suggests a high percentage of selection of students from the JNV classroom. Resonance has witnessed up to 98% of the batch strength which got into the IITs. Last year, in 2016, 39 students made it to the IITs translating into a selection rate of 74%.

1.     JEE Advanced: With 90% students of the selected bunch of students from JNV Bundi selected in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Advanced in 2017; this fruitful association continues to bring talent towards its rightful destination i.e. the IITs.

2.     JEE Main: Also, in the previously announced JEE (Main) 2017 result, 100% students (50 out of 50 students) qualified for JEE-Advanced 2017.

3.     XII Board Results: 100% students passed the Class-XII CBSE examination with good marks in batch of 2017 of JNV Bundi. 21 students out of the 50 students secured above 90% marks in Class 12^th CBSE Board. Among individual subjects, the number of students who secured above 90% in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics were 30, 32 and 31 respectively.

Resonance, Dakshana with JNV Bundi: Partnership at a glance

The old school thought "sharing is caring" has paved its way beautifully into this coalition. It all started with a small dream of a great man which then materialized by partnering with JNV Bundi. It was a great partnership but it alone could not bear the fruits of success that these students actually deserved. Selections happened but not many students could benefit from this program. But then in 2012, as to the good fortune of these students, Dakshana offered a helping hand and hence the number of selections since then has been rising astoundingly. The strength of this coalition is evident from the increasing selection percentage as shown in the below table.

Table: Resonance, Dakshana at JNV Bundi: Partnership at a glance

Notes:

_ Target year or Batch year indicates the year when student had his/her first attempt for JEE (Advanced).

_ Selected after extra preparation * = This indicates the count of those students which enroll in Resonance for coaching after completion of their class 12^th for another year to get selected in IITs. Scholarships to these students are given on the basis of their performance of previous year in JEE-Advanced. The year of selection for these students would be different from their Batch Year.

_ Total Selected ** = The sum total of the successful students in the JEE (Advanced) from a Target Year.

This alliance has thus proved to be an unmatched example of academic excellence that is achieved consistently through meaningful association of stakeholders. May the symphony orchestrated by JNV, Resonance and Dakshana continue to play the music of success of these students in the years to come and drive a positive change in the society.

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Article Inputs:

Acknowledgements:

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