MUMBAI: It is not just for entertainment. It's for education too. Professors from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) will be giving coaching classes to engineering aspirants through four DTH channels from January 1, taking the concept of Digital India to another level and reducing the dependency on coaching institutes.

These channels will be available free of cost through Doordarshan's FreeDish DTH platform, and the aspirants will only have to secure a Set-Top Box to watch these channels, PTI has reported.

IIT-PAL (Professor Assisted Learning) initiative will reduce dependence on coaching centres and also reach out to the students who are living in rural areas and cannot afford to pay the fee for expensive crash courses.

IIT Delhi Director V Ramgopal Rao said that a team of 40 professors from various IITs had compiled 200-hour lectures for each subject covering the entire syllabus of Joint Entrance Examination (JEE). There were several coaching institutes claiming to be providing easy tricks to crack the exam and not every aspirant could afford to join them, he added.

He added that the faculty members would be joined by teachers from various Kendriya Vidyalyas in imparting these lessons to the aspirants and the focus will be more on concepts.