Pune: Despite spending Rs 24.9 crore on a programme to facilitate preparations of SC students in the state for JEE and NEET, only 176 out of 900 students qualified for the exams in the last two years (2023-2025).The poor outcome has put a scanner on the scheme, which was launched as a two-year course to uplift students from underprivileged backgrounds.Student organisations demanded accountability and independent evaluation of the programme, including a review of the student and selection process of the coaching institute under the scheme, the quality of coaching, monitoring mechanisms and the performance of these empanelled institutes.Deepa Mudhol Munde, director ceneral of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Research and Training Institute (BARTI), Pune, told TOI that they were verifying the results, the reasons for many students not appearing for the examination and putting various parameters for selection of coaching institutes [empanelled under the scheme].According to Kuldeep Ambekar, founder of Student Helping Hands, the first batch (2023-25) selected 900 students across seven divisions. However, only 357 students appeared for the JEE/NEET examinations. Of these 357 who appeared, only 176 qualified. It translates to a success rate of 19.55%.The minutes of the meeting from the 40th BARTI Governing Council held on June 22, 2026, showed that how each of the coaching institutes across the 6 divisions – Mumbai, Pune, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Latur, Nashik and Nagpur had performed.Out of 12 students enrolled in an institute from Mumbai, 8 appeared for one of the two exams. None of them qualified. An institute from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar reported that, out of 124 students selected, only 11 appeared for any exam. There, only 2 qualified, which resulted in a success rate of 1.61%. Two institutes in Pune enrolled 160 students combined, out of which 23 students qualified JEE/NEET examination.“Several coaching institutes got contracts by highlighting their ‘so-called’ national track record during the tender process, but their performance under the BARTI scheme remained poor. None of the empanelled institutes achieved a success rate that exceeded 40%. It means there was something very wrong,” Ambekar said.“Either the BARTI programme was going wrong in the selection of the institutes, or the institutes did not care about the students and just cared about getting govt money. Another reason could be that the right students are unable to take advantage of this scheme,” said Ambekar.He added that already the 2024-26 batch results have been out and they needed to be evaluated. “If the govt has been spending crores of rupees every year, BARTI is duty-bound to ensure the money was going for the right output. If not, strict action must be taken against institutes that have consistently delivered poor results. If needed, new institutes must be selected in place of the poor performing ones for this year’s batch,” said Ambekar.Deepa Mudhol Munde, who holds the additional charge as DG BARTI, said they were in the process of evaluating the results for the 2024-26 batch. “We have also been looking at the academic performance of the 2025-27 batch even though they would appear for the exam only in 2027,” Munde said.“Proper monitoring mechanisms are being put in place based on the data of the previous two batches. We would put in various checks and balances like ensuring 100% students who are selected appear for the NEET/JEE examination, there should be a minimum 30% qualification rate for any institute to get selected, among other measures,” said Munde.
