Lalit Anjum
With around Rs.15000 crore market capitalisations, coaching and tutoring business has been a thriving industry in India. Among the major cities which boast of having the best cram schools is Kota in Rajasthan which has Rs.300 crore coaching enterprise, tutoring students coming from length and breadth of India for IIT-JEE. Similarly New Delhi is dotted with coaching centres for UPSC exam preparation. CAT coaching for MBA admissions is also a major contributor to this business. Each year tens of thousands of candidates decide to sit in the toughest entrance exams on the earth. The sheer numbers of the candidates and the meagre quantity of seats makes the competition so fierce that drives many candidates to develop suicidal tendencies due to tension and anxiety.
Why is the coaching industry thriving? This industry is capitalising on the gap created by the difference in the level of courses taught in schools or colleges and level of questions asked in the entrance exams. Though syllabus for school courses and entrance exams remain same, still candidates are prompted to enrol in tutoring classes and cram schools. Further the ineffective school teaching methods and insufficient efforts from teaching community makes way for tuitions classes to fill this void.
How is the coaching industry thriving? Increasing awareness among populace has given rise to their aspirations too. Fascinated by the age old traditional professions viz Medical, Engineering and Law, people aspire to be one of them. The demand and supply gap hinders their chances of sealing their seat in elite institutions. Here coaching industry comes in and hard sells the way of meeting those aspirations.
Coaching business has created a parallel non-degree awarding education system thanks to our shabby educational institutions. It has emerged as post-retirement employment option for career administrators and retired engineers. Monetary attraction in this industry is very lucrative. Several people who clear entrance exams rather join these coaching centres as faculty members than joining the services, for which tests are meant for. On one hand numerous candidates prepare for these exams and on other hand few talented ones after passing these exams, join these coaching centres as teachers. This robs nation of their essential services.
Does everyone deserve to be a Doctor, an Engineer? The reply to this question has been aptly answered by our Prime Minister in his Teacher’s Day interaction with the country. Instead of becoming something in life, we should pledge to serve and contribute to our country by defining certain objectives to be achieved within certain timeframe and enjoy the journey towards perfection.
Unfortunately the coaching industry and tutoring business has managed to create such an atmosphere, which equates success at entrance exams for AIIMS or IIT with unparallel status in society, without acknowledging the fact that weather general populace has a calibre and competence to justify its career as Doctor, an Engineer. This is a reason that so many cases of
moral turpitude has sky rocketed, be it in hospital administration or faulty construction of bridges and buildings.
Coaching centres create a false hope and aspiration among undeserving candidates as far as UPSC exams are concerned. Giving in to the lucrative advertisements by coaching centres, preparation for UPSC exams has been used as an excuse by many unemployed candidates.
Recently nation saw the agitation against UPSC exam pattern by the IAS aspirants in the national capital. Who were those people? They comprise of candidates from all over the country who spend year after year preparing for UPSC exams only to fail again. This has created a major chunk of unproductive population who do not contribute to the national development in any way. This manpower could be utilised in other economic sectors provided government acts in a manner to create jobs and vacancies in several other sectors to give them gainful employment.
What do they teach? Coaching centres teach short cut methods and techniques to crack the entrance exams creating artificial capability for short term gain. Coached product is exam centric. Coaching interferes with natural competence of the candidate which causes loss of originality. Often candidates who are naturally inclined towards e.g. fine arts, joins coaching class under peer pressure to compete in those entrance exams which are held in high esteem in the society. Failing it, person’s psychological, social and economical well being is badly hit.
Who is responsible? Political-Administrative-Industry nexus has been hell bent upon us to mar our future. Sub-standard administrators with wrong policies have made matters worse. As is evident, developed nations have easy to manage relatively small population. Thus have equal distribution of resources among its population. On contrary, our huge population is presently unmanageable. Thus selection process often turns into the rejection process. In every major entrance exam numerous candidates in preliminary stages are rejected to create a manageable chunk to select from. I wonder what happens to the candidate who just lost the opportunity by a infinitesimal margin in UPSC exam. Doesn’t he possess qualities of being an able administrator? These candidates bear brunt of red tape in evaluation and are deemed unlucky ones. They are turned back with smile and “Thanks for coming” jab.
Yes we can do! We can change this scenario. We can start with frequent change in the syllabus of each and every exam every year to break the monopoly of coaching centres providing coaching for same syllabus year after year. Surprise changes in syllabus and questions will bring about original thoughts and real ideas among candidates. As coaching industry comes under service sector, contributing small fraction of total revenue; it is need of an hour is to regulate the coaching industry, impose heavy Income tax. To nip this evil in the bud right policy should be pursued to increase investments in education sector and raise the national budget for human resource development. Creation of quality educational institutes and increase in seats with lucrative remuneration for teaching fraternity are the welcome steps to start with.
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