Srinagar, May 1: In a significant development, Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL), has signed multiple Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the security agencies to enhance educational access and welfare support to personnel and their families.
The agreement provides for subsidised fee structures for children of armed forces personnel, particularly those in active service. The MoUs have been signed with Indian Army and key paramilitary forces, including the Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) while the organisation is considering a separate agreement for its JK Police personnel as well.
Addressing media persons in Srinagar on Friday, Centre Director Aakash Syed OWais said the agreements aim to provide structured scholarships, academic mentoring, career guidance and nationwide coaching access to serving personnel, veterans, gallantry awardees, disabled members of the forces, and families of martyrs. He said that under this initiative, AESL will extend financial assistance to remove barriers in accessing quality education, particularly for students aspiring to pursue competitive careers such as engineering and medical entrance examinations.”Theprogrammes will offer academic resources at minimal or no cost, depending on eligibility. The initiative is aimed at supporting defence families in achieving educational success,” he said. He said that through these partnerships, the organisation aims to expand access to quality academic resources. “Anyone who has committed themselves to serving their country should have every available opportunity for their family to grow and succeed,” he said.
According to the details of the MoUs, extensive fee waivers and scholarships have been structured across all forces. For families of personnel who lost their lives in service, AESL will provide near-total fee waivers, with only registration or admission charges applicable in most cases.
Full tuition fee waivers have also been extended to wards of personnel with significant disabilities and gallantry award recipients. As per the agreement, partial tuition fee waivers ranging from 20 percent to 50 percent have been formulated for serving and retired personnel, subject to conditions and after adjustment of other scholarships.
Additional concessions have been tailored separately for BSF, CRPF and ITBP personnel, including higher waivers for disability cases and special provisions for orphans and boarded-out personnel. “The scholarship schemes will run alongside AESL’s existing merit-based programmes and will be applicable across its pan-India network of centres,” he said.
In addition to financial support, AESL will provide academic mentoring, career counselling, anaccess to national-level scholarship and talent identification examinations, including the ANTHE programme. “The initiative also includes provision for both virtual and offline academic support, as well as access to AESL centres and defence school facilities for assessments,” it reads. Owais said the programmes are designed as multi-year engagements, ranging from three to five years, to ensure sustained academic support and continuity for beneficiaries. Notably, AESL has been operating for over three decades and is currently running over 415 centres across the country. The organisation caters to over four lakh students, offering preparation for medical, engineering and other competitive examinations. “The MoUs are part of our commitment to contribute to the nation by supporting the educational aspirations of defence families,” Syed Owais said. He further said the centres in Kashmir have recorded consistent performance in medical and engineering entrance examinations over the past two decades and has produced several state toppers and successful candidates in Government Medical Colleges. He said that besides the opportunity for defence families, students avail benefits through multiple channels, including the Aakash Talent Hunt Exam, admission-cum-scholarship tests, and fee concessions for meritorious students. “Additional support is extended to economically weaker sections based on lists provided by the Directorate of School Education Kashmir under which 10 percent quota is reserved for students from EWS,” he said. He said that fee waivers range from partial to full tuition support, depending on eligibility and performance in scholarship tests. About the inclusion of JK Police personnel in MoUs, Owais said the J&K Police was not currently part of the MoU framework but “the organisation is considering a separate agreement for its personnel.”
