Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is also a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
Highlights
- Delhi student Vijay Kumar, son of a tailor, cracked the IIT exam
- He received four-month coaching from the Delhi government for free
- Arvind Kejriwal's son Pulkit has also made it to the prestigious IIT
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said the son of a tailor who cleared the difficult test to get into the Indian Institute of Technology is also like his own son.
Vijay Kumar, the son of a tailor and a homemaker, cracked the IIT entrance exam on the strength of his sheer hard work, boosted by a four-month coaching he received from the Delhi government for free. He lives with his family in a one-room house. Mr Kumar did his schooling from a Delhi government-run institution.
Mr Kejriwal's son, Pulkit, who scored an impressive 96.4 per cent in the CBSE Class 12 examination earlier this year, also cracked the IIT exam.
"Pulkit and Vijay, both are my sons. Every child in Delhi is a part of my family. I always work hard to ensure the future of every child in Delhi is bright," Mr Kejriwal tweeted today.
Earlier this week, Mr Kejriwal had congratulated Mr Kumar for getting admission in IIT. "I am very happy that my son and his son will study in IIT at the same time. There has been a tradition that the son of a poor man remains poor in the absence of good education. By providing quality education and training, we are bridging the gap that exists between the poor and the rich," the Chief Minister said on Tuesday.
"After I graduate from IIT, I want to teach young people like myself so that they can get into IIT," Mr Kumar told NDTV.
Pulkit Kejriwal said, "The free coaching by Delhi government has reduced the gap between the rich and the poor. At the end of the day it's your own hard work, but coaching gives you useful guidance what to do, how to prepare. No person should not be left out because he or she doesn't have resources."
In Rajasthan's Kota, the IIT coaching hub where student suicides have been statistically proven to be high, the average fee goes upwards of Rs 4 lakh for Class 11-12 fusion courses - regular classes along with competitive exam coaching.
Mr Kejriwal, a longtime tax officer who switched tracks to politics and eventually went on to become the Chief Minister of Delhi, after unseating Congress veteran Sheila Dikshit, is himself an engineering graduate from IIT Kharagpur. His daughter, Harshita, scored 96 per cent in her Class 12 CBSE examination and cleared the IIT Joint Entrance Examination (JEE).
The Delhi government maintains it gives top priority to improving education in the national capital. Its initiatives for state-run schools have received praise from a section of academicians for improving infrastructure and quality of teaching.