Ministry of Education asks States to encourage use of online coaching platform SATHEE

With the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and other engineering colleges only 45 days away, officials at the Ministry of Education (MoE) on November 21 said they would write to all States to encourage aspirants to utilise the newly launched portal for exam preparation — SATHEE (Self Assessment Test and Help for Entrance Exams).

The online coaching platform has been launched by the MoE and IIT-Kanpur.

Whereas private coaching centres and portals seek payment, SATHEE is an open learning platform available to students at no cost.

SATHEE has launched a 45-day crash course for aspirants to test their level of preparation.

About 5,000 students from the Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas, and schools under the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) have registered on the platform so far.

MoE officials said the goal is to reach 1,00,000 students.

The portal uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to interact with students, and can be customised to each student’s pace of learning.

SATHEE’s integrated AI chatbot helps students align their learning needs. 

Pan India mock tests tests are held every weekend, with the same look and feel adopted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for conducting the JEE. 

SATHEE hosts lectures and video content prepared by Professors and students of the IITs, and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). 

With National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) scheduled to take place in May, courses for NEET preparation will be hosted soon, officials said.

Currently, digital learning material is available on the SATHEE portal in four languages — English, Hindi, Odia, and Telugu.

Sanjay Kumar, Secretary (School Education), MoE said that there are about 28,000 CBSE schools, and many students in these schools were already aligned with some form of paid coaching or another.

Officials also said that by January or February, the portal intends to provide lectures and live courses on all National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) syllabus topics.

The MoE is also studying analytics data released by the NTA to check which States have lower number of students enrolling for entrance tests.