Registrations for the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur’s free online coaching platform Self-Assessment, Test and Help for Entrance Exams (SATHEE) have surged since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s August 15 announcement of a national network for free online coaching.
He added that recruitment and other examinations account for a much smaller share. The new platform is being developed in consultation with the education ministry. IIT Kanpur is leading the initiative with technical experts from IIT Madras. Existing SATHEE learners will eventually be migrated, although the mechanism is still being worked out.
In Punjab, SATHEE content is used in over 500 government schools, where students get two hours every alternate day to access the platform in classrooms.
“A majority of students are using our platform for engineering and medical entrance examination preparations,” said Karkare. Karkare said the new platform could introduce stronger outcome tracking by using government IDs to validate students and working with the National Testing Agency and other examination bodies to verify results.
Officials said the new platform is expected to be launched as early as October 2. Karkare said they have over 2.1 million registrations so far. “For this year, we have 700,000 to 800,000 students actively on the SATHEE portal. Nearly 300,000 visit the website daily to watch videos, download content, and solve questions.”
The institute is working with the Union education ministry to develop a new platform building on SATHEE’s experience, with upgraded content, user interface, artificial intelligence (AI) and infrastructure. “We have to increase the quality of our lectures, make them more engaging, and retain learners. He added that the initiative would require more mentors, technical experts, better animation, and greater infrastructure capacity.
IIT Kanpur professor Amey Karkare, the SATHEE project in-charge, said the surge in registrations increased pressure to scale up quickly. The ministry is helping us by providing all the required resources and support,” Karkare said.
