In what will benefit scores of company secretary students, the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) has embarked on a public-private partnership (PPP) model to start oral classes in small towns and far-flung areas, since around 70% of its estimated 1 lakh students currently fail to get access to oral classes.

So far, only 30% of our students are able to enroll for oral classes while the balance 70% have to adopt a self-study approach. We plan to change this and increase the number of study centres through this PPP model in each district and town, ICSI secretary NK Jain told FE. Jain said the step was aimed at increasing the quality of students passing out from the institute. Direct interaction with a trained faculty would help them understand the various concepts better, he said.

ICSI was in the process of identifying private and government institutes that it would accredit for holding classes, Jain said . We would accredit the centres on the basis of the infrastructure they can provide, the quality of their faculty as well as other set parameters, he said.

At present, ICSI conducts classroom teachings through its regional council or chapters.