Wednesday, Jun 23, 2010
63.42 p.c. of those coached are eligible for admission this year


Bangalore: It is not just the city-bred students with access to quality coaching centres who are making it to the much-sought-after medical and engineering colleges in the State. Even students from rural areas have come out with flying colours in the recently held CET 2010. As many as 9,066 students of Pre-University colleges situated in rural belts have become eligible for admission to the professional colleges this academic year, courtesy the satellite-based CET coaching programme for rural students.

Out of the 14,293 students, who appeared for the coaching programme held across 110 centres in rural parts of the State by the Department of Higher Education, in association with Karnataka Electronics Development Corporation (KEONICS), 9,066 students qualified for admission to engineering, medical and dental colleges. Also, such students figure in the top 100 ranks in engineering, medical streams and Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy (ISMH) in substantial numbers.

Five rural students figure among the top 100 ranks for engineering, 10 in medicine and 13 in Indian System of Medicine and Homoeopathy (ISMH).
According to Soorya K.N., director of Gumbi Software, which was the technological partner for the training programme, Dhanya Ganesh, a student of Satya Sai Pre-University College in Alike village of Vittala in Dakshina Kannada's Puttur taluk has bagged the 15th rank in engineering and 35th in medical stream. Similarly, Darshan C., a resident of Kadur in Chickmagalur district bagged the 14th rank in medical stream and 40th in engineering. Abhilash Sharma K., also a native of Puttur, secured the 16th rank in medical stream.
The topper among the rural students, Dhanya Ganesh, is eying a seat in the National Institute of Technology, Karnataka (NITK) as he has a good ranking even in AIEEE. “Though he has a good ranking in medical, he is keen on taking up engineering,” Ganesh's mother Durga P.N. told The Hindu.

Another topper, Darshan, is also keen on joining an engineering college. “If I get a seat in NITK, it will be good. Otherwise, I will join a reputed engineering college in Bangalore,” he told The Hindu before adding that the coaching they received was helpful even for AIEEE.
Mr. Soorya said the performance of students from rural areas, who had registered for the satellite-based coaching programme, was very encouraging with 63.42 per cent of students becoming eligible for admission. “The figure is better than the overall percentage of students who had qualified for admission to professional colleges,” he said.