Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani on Thursday informed the Rajya Sabha that the government has decided to operationalise a Peer-group Assisted Learning (PAL) Programme for socially and educationally disadvantaged students in the IITs.
Under this programme, the senior students would mentor fresh students especially from socially and educationally disadvantaged sections and help to cope with the academic pressures of IIT.
Apart from this, many IITs have taken steps such as, operationalising a basic English language course to improve English competency, offering two-non-graded courses in language and writing skills using professional software for English language instruction, conducting formal, informal English language remedial sessions by student mentors and holding special English classes on weekends or evening tutorials and provision of additional help through teaching assistants.
This support will be provided by IITs without charging any fee.
