An NUJS Kolkata student has launched a non-profit social network for CLAT takers to encourage more diversity at law schools and economically less well-off students to succeed in the exam.
Ramanuj Mukherjee has set up the social website myclat.ning.com under the name CLAThacker which targets takers of the Common Law Admissions Test (CLAT) and the Symbiosis Entrance Test.
He explained: "It is a non-profit effort to create a platform for CLAT aspirants and teachers to come together and help each other. I get law students to write articles and blogs for law aspirants, and this makes a lot of useful study resources available to those who can not afford coaching classes for economic or other reasons."
He said that the site was completely free and would remain that way, with plans to create an "open source movement" and social media collaboration to CLAT.
"There are numerous students who have already cracked the entrance tests who can help CLAT aspirants with minimal effort, if they can be brought together," claims Mukherjee.
"Eventually I plan to provide an open source substitute for coaching classes and paid materials available in the market for preparation for law entrances," he added.
"I believe if resources related to preparation can be made available online free of cost, that can help a great deal to increase the diversity of students in law schools, as a lot of students who can not pay for the coaching classes may not get through the entrances to the big league law schools despite their ambitions."
"Personally I believe that so far CLAThacker has provided some very good Legal GK [general knowledge] resources. I hope to provide material on other subjects too as I find more people willing to help me on this project. There is a plan to upload videos of classes in the style of OpenCourseware to make distance learning on the web possible, and this should happen by March."
CLAThacker was conceived by Mukherjee and started in January 2010, although he adds that since then many volunteers have come forward to make it a success.
The site currently has around 100 registered users.
NUJS professor Shamnad Basheer has also started a diversity initiative independent of CLAThacker in January 2010 that aims for law students to visit villages and help prospective students directly with CLAT preparations.
Commenting on CLAThacker, Basheer said: "The platform really leverages the power of web 2.0 to help a diverse section of students to take a good shot at CLAT. And the fact that it is run by someone who, despite having studied in a non English medium school managed to top NUJS entrance, lends it a lot of credibility. And offers hope to a number of students." [The above two paragraphs were added to the article 5 March 2010 to clarify. -Ed]
Visit CLAThacker on myclat.ning.com to contribute.
Read Legally India's article collating advice from CLAT preparation professionals and a continuing discussion on preparation strategies. Also read on for an article on past students' CLAT experiences and techniques - some more successful than others.
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The noble idea belongs to Shamnad who has started the 'diversity' project. This, everybody in NUJS knows.
the aim of CLAThacker is to make resources available for everyone from the first day it was created. 'increasing diversity in law school' is a really nice phrase, and definitely not conceived by me, but i remember how difficult it was for my parents to finance my law entrance coaching, and i always wanted to do something about it.
Shamnad sir has a brilliant project in the pipeline with respect to increasing diversity in law schools. it could address the problem of outreach to those who do not have access to internet and are located in villages. I am involved in it and proud to be so. Shamnad sir is a man of much bigger calibre and i am absolutely glad to be of any help at all to his work.
having said that, i am not writer of this article and I hope u understand that i do not control what is written here. If i wrote a blogpost on diversity in law schools i'd surely have mentioned Shamnad sirs initiative.
i may have created the forum, but it is the members who have contributed to it and made it sustainable and useful. i think it will be silly to fight over who's idea is what. I'd completely love it if someone hijacks the idea and make something better and more useful.
Nice work guys!
(@ Kian AND Ramanuj):
It's disappointing that Shamnad Sir's name does not find mention here. While Ramanuj has been blogging on CLAT preparation for sometime, Mr Shamnad Basheer, one of our finest teachers at NUJS, put together a community outreach program to increase the diversity of students taking the CLAT which he announced as a working model in January, 2010. His indeed is a unique and commendable effort, quite different from what we have seen from other organizations which provide sources of information for CLAT preparation.
Whether it is sloppy research before publishing this article, or false pretense, it's definitely a little shocking to see Ramanuj being credited for that! Yes, it may not matter who conceives an idea as long as others can chip in with action. But it is wrong to not give credit to someone where it is due. Even wronger to credit someone else.
@ 10 -
The moots were a disaster this year, in part because we see students doing many other things apart from mooting, but mostly because of other internal matters with the MCS (politics/money matters). But, all those internal matters seem to be issues which should drag down the performance of this year alone. Next year will definitely be better.
We had also ommitted to include a comment from Basheer in the original article, which we have now added above.
Basheer commented: "The platform really leverages the power of web 2.0 to help a diverse section of students to take a good shot at CLAT. And the fact that it is run by someone who, despite having studied in a non English medium school managed to top NUJS entrance, lends it a lot of credibility. And offers hope to a number of students."
I accept that this should have been included in the original copy of the article and regret any confusion caused.
Best regards,
Kian
CLAThacker has been online since December 2009.
anyway, well done!!
Setting up a website and getting your friends to post on it is one thing. Putting together a program to actually GO to rural areas and to give access to those who can't even think of accessing the internet is an altogether different thing. Both the initiatives are good - hell, any initiative in this regard would be a step in the right direction. Which one will be more effective is a matter of opinion and something that we'll find out with time. Personally, I feel that Mr Basheer's would be qualitatively successful and CLATHacker quantitatively.
As for what Mr. Basheer has done yet, #19, things don't happen overnight. The model requires partnerships and a lot of work. Eager to get it done earlier? Volunteer.
is there any personal setup between Ramanuj mukherjee and legally india.
these all are fake.
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