Free coaching for competitive exams fails to boost results

Mangaluru: The state govt’s free coaching programme for CET, NEET, JEE and other competitive examinations has failed to yeild significant improvement for the second consecutive year, with govt PU college students registering limited success in the latest KCET results.Data from the department of pre-university education (DPUE), Bengaluru, shows that only 22 students from govt PU colleges secured ranks within the top 1,000 across all streams in KCET 2026. Of these, there are no candidates from the engineering stream. Only 191 students from govt colleges featured within the top 5,000 ranks, while 226 students managed to place within the top 10,000.Bharath S, director of DPUE, Bengaluru, said that the outcomes so far have not met expectations and the initiative requires major changes.

“The performance and outcome are not satisfactory. We expect better numbers as the programme was continued for the second year. The revamp process is on and will be implemented at the earliest,” he said.Further, Bharath said the department views the outcome as unsatisfactory, and has decided to restructure the delivery model. “From this academic year, the lecturers of PU colleges will conduct coaching, and currently lecturers are being trained in Bengaluru,” he said.

He also noted that last year’s review focused only on engineering stream data from participating govt PU colleges, and that the department is now targeting improved results across streams. “We are aiming for a higher number of aspirants within the first 1,000 in CET,” he said.This year, 7,620 students from govt PU colleges appeared for KCET 2026. According to govt college principals interest in competitive exams remains strong, with many students registering for coaching, though a significant number fail to attend consistently or appear for exams. They attributed part of the problem to the coaching being conducted online over the last two years, which many students did not follow. Shifting the programme to offline mode and involving in-house lecturers could boost participation and outcomes.