Delhi Government Announces Free JEE, NEET Residential Coaching for Class 12 Students — Zero Fees, Free Hostel and Food in Pune; Check Eligibility and How to Apply

New Delhi: For thousands of Delhi government school students who dream of an IIT seat or an MBBS admission but cannot afford a ₹2–3 lakh coaching bill, the capital's education department has opened a door that costs nothing at all.

The Directorate of Education (DoE), Government of NCT of Delhi, has issued a circular to all government and government-aided schools informing them about a fully funded one-year residential coaching programme for JEE and NEET aspirants currently studying in Class 12 Science. The programme is offered under a scholarship run by the Dakshana Foundation, a Pune-headquartered non-profit that has been running free engineering and medical entrance coaching for economically weaker students for nearly two decades.

Under the scheme, selected students will spend one full year after Class 12 at the Dakshana Valley campus near Pune, where coaching, hostel accommodation and three meals a day are provided free of cost. Students do not pay tuition, admission or boarding charges at any stage.

Selection will be made through the Joint Dakshana Selection Test (JDST) 2027, which is tentatively scheduled to be conducted in December 2026.

Who Can Apply: Delhi Free JEE NEET Coaching Eligibility 2026

A candidate must satisfy all three conditions — school, merit and family income. Meeting two out of three does not qualify.

1. School and class requirement

• Currently studying in Class 12 (Science) in a Government, Government-aided or Public school for the academic session 2026–27.

• The student must appear in the Class 12 board examination by May 2027.

• Students of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNV) and Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) are covered under a separate track and do not apply through this route.

2. Merit requirement — Class 10 Maths + Science aggregate

3. Family income requirement

• Male candidates: annual family income up to ₹3,00,000

• Female candidates: annual family income up to ₹5,00,000

The relaxed merit bar and higher income ceiling for girls is a deliberate design choice aimed at widening female participation in engineering and medical entrance preparation — an area where drop-off after Class 12 remains high in low-income households.

Delhi Free JEE NEET Coaching: How to Apply, Step by Step

Step 1 — Visit apply.scholarship.dakshana.org, verify eligibility, and submit the short application form.

Step 2 — First-round shortlisting is done against the cut-offs published in the application form.

Step 3 — Shortlisted students fill the detailed Dakshana Scholar Application (DSA) at scholarship.dakshana.org.

Step 4 — Invited candidates appear for mock tests to get familiar with the online test interface.

Step 5 — Candidates carry their own mobile phone and take the JDST 2027 online at the allotted examination centre. All tests run on the Dakshana Scholarship Test Android app.

Step 6 — Second-round shortlisting is based on the JDST 2027 score, followed by an interview and document verification.

Step 7 — Finally selected students receive the Dakshana One-Year Scholarship — free JEE/NEET coaching, food and accommodation at Pune.

JDST 2027 Exam Pattern: Marking Scheme and Sections

The JDST is an objective, multiple-choice online test with negative marking, and a distinctive Logical Reasoning section that most entrance-coaching screening tests do not carry.

• Section 1: Physics — 25 questions

• Section 2: Chemistry — 25 questions

• Section 3: Mathematics (25 questions, engineering aspirants) or Biology (50 questions, medical aspirants)

• Section 4: Logical Reasoning — 25 questions

Marking: +5 for every correct answer, –2 for every incorrect answer, 0 for unattempted.

Because the penalty is 40% of the reward, blind guessing actively damages the score. Students preparing for JDST should treat accuracy, not attempt-count, as the primary target.

JDST 2027 Syllabus at a Glance

Physics: Rectilinear motion, projectile motion, relative motion, electrostatics, capacitance, current electricity, magnetic field and magnetism, electromagnetic induction, alternating current, geometrical optics and instruments, wave optics, Newton's laws of motion and friction.

Chemistry: Mole concept, IUPAC nomenclature, solutions and colligative properties, electrochemistry, chemical kinetics, coordination compounds, haloalkanes and haloarenes, alcohols/ethers/phenols, aldehydes and ketones, carboxylic acids and derivatives, d- and f-block elements.

Mathematics (Engineering): Relations and functions, inverse trigonometric functions, matrices and determinants, limits/continuity/differentiability, application of derivatives, indefinite and definite integration, differential equations, vectors and 3D geometry.

Biology (Medical): Cell — the unit of life, cell cycle and cell division, biomolecules, sexual reproduction in flowering plants, human reproduction, reproductive health, principles of inheritance, molecular basis of inheritance, origin and evolution, human health and diseases, biotechnology principles and applications.

Logical Reasoning — Verbal: Number and letter series, analogies, cause and effect, verbal classification, blood relations, logical sequence of words, direction sense, logical Venn diagrams, data sufficiency, coding-decoding, assertion and reason, syllogism, statements and assumptions. Non-Verbal: Image series, construction of shapes, classification, picture analogies, rule detection.

Notably, the syllabus overlaps almost entirely with the Class 11 and 12 NCERT core — meaning a student preparing sincerely for boards is already preparing for JDST. No separate crash course is required.

Why This Matters: The Track Record Behind the Scholarship

The value of a free coaching seat depends entirely on the conversion rate behind it. On that count, the Dakshana numbers are unusually strong for a philanthropic programme.

According to the foundation's own published data, 10,108 scholars have been trained to date, of whom 8,184 (81%) secured admission to IITs, NITs or Government Medical Colleges. Among 6,854 JEE-track scholars, 4,072 (59%) entered IITs and a further 1,515 joined NITs. On the medical side, of 3,254 NEET-track scholars, 2,597 (80%) secured Government Medical College seats.

In the most recent cycle, the foundation reported that 86% (383 of 444) of its scholars qualified for government medical college admission from NEET 2026, with 76% securing MBBS seats.

For a Delhi government school student whose family earns under ₹3 lakh a year, that is a statistically better route to an IIT or a GMC seat than most paid coaching contracts in Mukherjee Nagar or Kota — at zero cost.

How This Fits With Delhi's Existing Free Coaching Schemes

This announcement sits alongside, and does not replace, the Delhi government's existing free coaching architecture:

• The Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Vidya Shakti Mission, under which free professional coaching for JEE, NEET, CLAT, CA Foundation and CUET-UG is provided to meritorious government school students through empanelled institutes, with reserved seats for girls.

• The Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojana, which funds competitive-exam coaching for SC, ST and economically weaker students.

• Earlier DoE tie-ups for in-school entrance-exam preparation, test series and mentoring for Classes 11 and 12.

The key difference with the Dakshana route is that it is residential and post-Class 12 — a full drop-year, live-in preparation model rather than after-school supplementary classes.

What Students and Parents Should Do Right Now

1. Check the Class 10 marksheet first. Compute the Maths + Science aggregate before anything else — that single number determines eligibility.

2. Keep the income certificate ready. Family income proof is verified at the document-verification stage, not at application.

3. Ask the school principal for the DoE circular. Government and government-aided schools have been formally informed; the school is the first point of contact.

4. Do not pay anyone. The scholarship, the test and the coaching are free. There is no application fee, no agent and no "seat booking" charge. Any demand for money is a red flag.

5. Apply only through the official portal — apply.scholarship.dakshana.org — and route all queries to the official scholarship email listed in the notification.