New Delhi, Dec 14 (IANS): The Delhi government has approved free entrance coaching to Scheduled Caste (SC) students for various competitive examinations, a statement said on Wednesday.

A monthly stipend of Rs 2,500 per student will be paid for attending the classes, the statement said, adding coaching will be provided for civil services, judicial services, banking, engineering, medicine and other competitive examinations.

This will be provided under a scheme which was approved in a Cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, on Tuesday.

"A need has been felt by the Education Department that instead of running a coaching centre exclusively for students belonging to the community, providing coaching through reputed private coaching institutes will be more result oriented," it said.

The institute should have been fully functional for a minimum period of three years at the time of applying under this scheme and having a minimum enrolment of 100 students in the courses.

Under the scheme, SC students in Delhi, who have passed Class 10 and 12 from schools here, will be eligible for free coaching.

They should fulfil the eligibility criteria for appearing in the competitive exam, and should have total family income of not more than Rs 6 lakh per annum, the statement said.

Students whose family income is less than Rs 2 lakh will get 100 per cent assistance, while families with income of Rs 2-6 lakh will get 75 per cent assistance.

The students must have secured prescribed percentage of marks in the qualifying examinations for which free coaching is proposed to be imparted under the scheme.