The Centre has not been able to effectively implement the scheme of providing free coaching to economically disadvantaged students appearing for competitive exams, a parliamentary standing committee report has noted.
the budget estimate was further downgraded to ₹20 crore and the actual expenditure was only ₹7.11 crore While the committee has stated that in 2025-26. In its action taken reply, the Ministry has stated that the actual expenditure during 2025-26 was ₹9.86 crore. In 2026-27, the Ministry of Social Justice has fixed a target of enrolling 7,000 candidates for free coaching.
The report paints a bleak picture of the free coaching scenario at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech announced a rollout of “free online coaching” for all students, following the Gen Z protests demanding accountability over NEET-UG paper leak. The road map of the “free online coaching” plan has not yet been made public. On this, the report notes: “The committee does not understand the reason for fixing a target of 7,000, which is double the previous target, particularly when the target fixed earlier has not been achieved.”
“The performance has remained poor in spite of changes introduced by the Department (Ministry of Social Justice) over the years such as making Dr. The report stated that the parliamentary committee was not satisfied with the explanation given by the Ministry for the poor performance of the scheme such as limited participation by the Central universities and delayed proposals. Ambedkar Foundation as the central nodal agency. The committee noted that the proposal for the 16th Finance Committee cycle includes inclusion of State universities and introduction of student-centric mode for wider coverage,” the report states.
Of the targeted 10,500 candidates to be enrolled for free coaching, the Union government could enrol only 2,790 students (26%) over the past three years. In a report tabled in Parliament on August 10, the Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment noted that the target fixed by the Ministry of Social Justice of annually extending free coaching to 3,500 students could not be achieved. Of the 19 Central universities selected to impart coaching no proposal regarding funding candidates for free coaching were received from North Eastern Hill University in Shillong, Central University of Kerala in Kasargod, Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha and Central Tribal University, Andhra Pradesh, according to a reply in Parliament given by the Ministry earlier in February this year.
