TIRUCHY: P Sethupathi, who was studying at Lalgudi Government Higher Secondary School in Tiruchy, always dreamed to get into one of the premier engineering colleges in India. But for someone who couldn’t afford to pay for the coaching classes, cracking the tough JEE was a distant dream.
That’s when he found out about IGNITTE, a student club from NIT Trichy, which provides free coaching for JEE and NEET to government school students. He took coaching from IGNITTE in 2019-20 and got into NIT Trichy in the Electrical and Electronics Engineering department.
Now a fourth-year student, Sethupathi is a member of IGNITTE and teaches government school students. He says this way he can give back to society. Under the IMPULSE programme, IGNITTE club has trained around 200 students since its inception in 2017. Among these, 18 students have cleared JEE Mains and one has cleared JEE Advanced.
Initially, the club trained government school students from Tiruchy and Perambalur, but in 2021, it started training students from Tirunelveli district as well. Students shortlisted for the coaching have to go through tests and interviews, with the support of the district administrations. The team of mentors is usually selected by the senior club members based on their knowledge of the subject and their ability to teach.
Dr R Manjula, a professor and faculty advisor for IGNITTE says, “Only students with dedication opt for this club, as it demands immense discipline to manage both their studies and the coaching. Students join this club with the intention to give back to society.”
The IGNITTE team conducts coaching in the evenings and the weekends in both offline and online modes. Further, during November and December, the aspirants are made to undergo full-time coaching by visiting the NIT-T campus, for which the club makes all necessary arrangements.
Coordinator of IGNITTE GS Ravichandran, who is a fourth-year Production Engineering student, says, “We chose the hybrid method to teach them as several students are from far away and from other districts.” He further says that they teach students both in Tamil and English as many students are from Tamil medium schools.
“We ensure that the students understand the topics properly and hence, we teach them in Tamil first and then in English. Since only a few of us are from Tamil medium schools, we learn the subjects in Tamil so that we can teach them better,” he adds. They don’t just conduct coaching classes for the aspirants, but also conduct mock tests so that it would be easier to track their progress and work on their weaknesses.
S Pugazharasi, a former government model school student, who got into NIT in Trichy after taking coaching from IGNITTE, says, “I am not sure if I would have received the same kind of training in any coaching institute. Here we were taught by three mentors each, who ensured that we were thorough with the subjects.”
Arun Kumar, who was trained by IGNITTE members in 2019, was the first aspirant to get into IIT Madras in the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering department in 2021, adding another feather to their cap. “We train each student in a way they clear both JEE Mains and Advanced, and most of them clear the Mains exam,” the club members say.
Professor Dr Manjula further says that although some students couldn’t crack the JEE after taking the coaching, they passed their Class 12 board exams with flying colours and enrolled in many good colleges.
NIT-T Director Dr G Aghila says, “If not for the NIT-T students who came up with such an ambitious idea, we would not have been able to help to provide this platform to the aspirants. We are planning to turn this into a bigger project in the future in a way that the studies of the NIT students involved don’t get affected.”
(Edited by Ashutosh Acharya)