Sleeping watchdogs! Silent collapse of India’s formal education

By Ashi Gaur, Ritwiz Gaur

At 6 a.m., everyday Bhartiya Janta (Indian common folk) witness students aged 14-18 rushing – Not for school (but for a coaching centre); Not carrying notebooks (but photocopied ‘modules’); Never met School Principal; ‘Attendance’ was a fiction—bought, signed, and delivered for a price”; To the government, they are ‘enrolled students’; To the coaching factory, they are ‘products.’ To themselves, they are just numbers—rank 21, 3241, 4867, 10092—chasing a dream that may never have been their own.

Fringe Success, Massive Despair: The Silent Epidemic

In a disturbing trend that has gained dangerous momentum over the past decade, India’s education system is witnessing the unchecked rise of coaching centres operating as de facto schools, while affiliated boards and regulatory bodies look away. What was once considered supplementary academic support has now ballooned into a parallel schooling system, threatening the very foundation of formal education. Across cities and towns, a student batch starts its day at 6 AM in the premises of a coaching centre, and yet somehow, the school they are “officially enrolled” in claims compliance with the 75% minimum attendance rule.  Obviously under daylight through an elaborate mechanism of proxy schools, forged attendance registers, and tacit complicity. Despite being statutorily empowered under regulations, State Education Departments and boards like CBSE and CISCE have largely failed to act. The causative factors are manifold: The syndication between coaching institutions and “ghost schools”; A rat race among parents, desperate to secure their child’s future; Fringe success rates where only a handful emerge victorious, while the majority are left grappling with failure and despair; An education model incentivized by fatty fees, turning learning into a brutal marketplace. Paradoxically, many toppers, whose faces are splashed across billboards, are later claimed by multiple institutes, each asserting that the student is “their product”, highlighting the ethical vacuum prevailing.

While NCERT textbooks are the prescribed curriculum for entrance examinations like JEE and NEET, a ground reality check reveals a different picture. The questions asked often extend beyond NCERT’s scope. Coaching institutes have created a “black market” curriculum, intensively training students through material not part of standard schooling. The formation of NTA (National Testing Agency) was aimed at standardizing this chaos, but the tug-of-war between school education and coaching commerce continues.

Mental Health Crisis: The Dark Underbelly

Much evolved  shadow ecosystem of coaching institutes infact a parallel schooling systems, undermines constitutional guarantees, statutory rights, and national educational policy, while pushing young minds into a brutal, high-stakes rat race that leaves emotional scars for life. Across the country, a worrying pattern is evident, advertising excesses abound, with full-page national ads claiming alignment with the National Education Policy 2020, despite operating in ways antithetical to its spirit. This collusion gives rise to an education model based not on learning, but on brutal competitive performance, where fringe success rates (3–5% in JEE Advanced or NEET) are used to justify a system that leaves 95% of aspirants emotionally broken. Suicidal tendencies among aspirants have tragically spiked. In Kota (Rajasthan), India’s coaching capital, more than 30 student suicides were reported in 2023 alone. This is the human cost of an education model that celebrates only a microscopic success, leaving the vast majority in the shadows. As the Bhagavad Gita says: “Samatvam yoga uchyate” — “Evenness of mind is called yoga.” The obsession with rank and success, ignoring the child’s mental health, is a profound betrayal of India’s ancient educational ideals.

National Education Policy 2020: A Paper Tiger?

While the NEP 2020 advocates – Critical thinking over rote learning; Vocational exposure by grade 6 and reduced curriculum load but the ground reality is the exact opposite — an intensification of syllabus load, commercialization, and anxiety due to coaching. In fact coaching institutes claim NEP 2020 compliance while grossly violating its fundamental pillars of inclusive, experiential, and child-centric learning.

Perplexed Social Dynamics

Deeper Causative Analysis reveals that, in era of week parenting coupled with commercialised schooling, Parental Rat Race has emerged out to be one of the essential factor led by anxiety over limited seats in IITs, AIIMS, and NITs that pushes parents to prioritize “guaranteed” results over holistic development. Further Coaching Syndicates has dominated the market whereby coaching centres form cartel-like alliances with schools, sometimes even “renting” schools for enrolment purposes. Some of schools (white-sheeps as black are scanty in number) accept such arrangements in return for hefty fees, while coaching centres profit from mass admissions.

Statutes on Paper, Silence in Practice: The Collapse of Oversight

Despite having laws, affiliation regulations, judicial warnings, and a national education policy committed to holistic development, the phenomenon continues — revealing a systemic failure of regulation and enforcement. This parallel education universe is ultra vires to the Constitution of India. Article 21A — Right to Education introduced by the 86th Constitutional Amendment, whereby Article 21A guarantees free and compulsory education to children aged 6–14 “in a manner as the State may, by law, determine. A “proxy schooling” arrangement where no real academic environment is maintained is a fraud upon Article 21A itself. Similarly, Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act) defines – “school” as an institution providing formal education; Section 8 obligates the State to ensure free education and compliance with norms; Section 16 prohibits denial of admission, but the practice of pushing students entirely into coaching effectively denies genuine education. Moreso, affiliation Bye-Laws (CBSE and Others) mandates that schools must maintain real-time, authentic student attendance records and schools faking attendance to allow coaching centre domination are in breach of affiliation conditions, inviting de-affiliation. Even criminal laws erstwhile  Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC) encompass sections –  420 (cheating), Section 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), and Section 471 (using forged documents) are attracted when fake attendance and certificates are created and both school authorities and coaching centres are potentially criminally liable. Same has been reiterated in Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) – Section 318 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property); Section 336 (Forgery for purpose of cheating) and Section 338 (Using forged documents as genuine). BNS Section 316 (Cheating by personation) and Section 318 (Cheating generally) may be attracted if students are misled into enrolling based on false promises.

Ironically, many coaching institutes are running full-page advertisements in national newspapers, claiming to be aligned with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, despite operating in a manner opposed to NEP’s principles (no holistic learning, no inclusive education, no focus on creativity) and consequently misleading students and parents about guaranteed success in entrance exams and perhaps claiming association or accreditation which often does not exist. Legally, it is in contravention to provisions of  Consumer Protection Act, 2019 -Section 2(28) (“misleading advertisement” as an advertisement which falsely describes a product or service), Section 2(47) classifies misleading advertisement as an unfair trade practice; Section 21 empowers the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) to order withdrawal of such advertisements, impose penalties up to Rs 10 lakh for the first offence, and up to Rs 50 lakh for repeat offences. Statutorily, Competition Act, 2002 – prohibits abuse of dominant position (Section 4); defines unfair competition, including misleading marketing practices {Section 2(r)} and further prohibits anti-competitive agreements — which may apply when coaching institutes collude with proxy schools {Section 3(4)}. Digital versions of such advertisements (on social media, websites) are regulated and misleading online ads can attract penalties under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. State-Specific Statutes in some instances are well in place –  Rajasthan Coaching Institutes (Regulation) Act, 2021 (mandates transparency in advertisements and disclosure of selection ratios); Maharashtra Coaching Classes Regulation Draft Policy (proposes strict guidelines for truthful marketing), perhaps proposed Tamil Nadu Private Coaching Centres (Regulation) Bill aims to curb false advertising.

In multiple writ petitions filed against coaching centre malpractice, various High Courts have observed the “urgent need for statutory regulation of coaching centres,” recognizing that absence of such regulation is resulting in a gross violation of fundamental rights under Articles 14, 21, and 21A. The Apex Court -pronouncements are mandated as law of the land- have repeatedly warned against the commercialization of education – T.M.A. Pai Foundation v. State of Karnataka 2002 (Education is not a business and cannot be treated as one. It is essentially charitable in nature. Profiteering is not permissible; Modern School v. Union of India 2004 (the Court emphasized the paramountcy of child-centric education over institutional profits); P.A. Inamdar v. State of Maharashtra 2005 (Reinforced that education must not be commercialized under the garb of service); Society for Unaided Private Schools v. Union of India 2012 (Reiterated the importance of ensuring real, quality education, not just certification).

From Collapse to Course Correction

To begin with legislators and regulatory authorities shall and must ensure – Mandatory decoupling of school attendance from coaching enrolment; Surprise inspections and audits of attendance records (Strict prohibition on coaching centres enrolling school-going students during academic hours); Disclosure norms making it illegal for a coaching centre to claim a student without proof of primary enrolment; Cap on coaching fees to break the exploitative economic model; Mental health support integrated into education policy for competitive exam aspirants; National registry of coaching institutes with mandatory transparent reporting; Mandatory disaffiliation of proxy schools; Transparent audits of coaching centre operations; Truth-in-advertising laws to curb false claims.

Proactively, the judiciary can direct creation of a National Regulatory Authority for Coaching Centres and ensure imposition of strict criminal liability for educational fraud.

Social change makers must ensure public campaigns to make parents aware of the dangers of proxy schooling and incentivizing schools to provide in-house academic excellence rather than outsourcing to private players.

Academician, intelligentsia and activist – it is a high time to act!

Reclaiming Education: From Factories to Foundations of Learning

The Indian Constitution envisions education as a fundamental right, a nation-building exercise, not a commodity for sale. The unchecked spread of coaching centres operating as parallel schools is a violation of this dream. If schools become mere registration centers, coaching centres remain unregulated profiteers, and regulators stay inert, then the soul of Indian education stands lost.

It is time to reclaim education — as a right, not a race.

Infographic with article:

Real Education vs The Coaching Trap

About Authors:

Authors are Law Scholars and Educational Leaders, Passionpreneurs Researchers and  Activist for last more than two & a half decades.

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