Page 14 - EW April 2025

Education News

DELHI annually, for highly competitive
Imminent crackdown open entrance exams such as the

Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) of the
country’s 23 renowned IITs and the
National-Eligibility-cum Entrance
Test (NEET) for admission into 603
medical colleges countrywide. While
the city has gained fame for students
who routinely top JEE, NEET, CLAT,
CUET and other public exams, its
hard-driving coaching schools/insti-
tutes have attracted widespread criti-
cism for the intense pressure exerted
on young school-leavers.
Therefore in recent years, Rajas-
than’s test prep/coaching institutes
have acquired the reputation of
suicide factories in which young
teens enrolled by ambitious par-
ents desperate for them to succeed,
are often driven over the edge. In
Kota test prep students: suicides factory reputation the decade 2015-2025, 127 teens
enrolled in Kota’s coaching institutes
nother attempt to regulate provision barring students below 16 have ended their young lives by
India’s Rs.60,000 crore per years from signing up with coach- suicide. Moreover, reports of drug
Ayear test prep aka coaching ing centres — drawn from the Union abuse, unsafe sexual behaviour, emo-
industry is likely to run aground. The education ministry’s ‘Guidelines tional distress, gang fights, deceptive
Rajasthan Coaching Centres (Control for Regulation of Coaching Cen- advertising, and inadequate student
and Regulation) Bill, 2025 — the first tres’ issued in January 2024 — was support systems have further intensi-
comprehensive legislation country- removed. This omission is widely fied the call for regulation of the test
wide to regulate test prep institu- reported to be the handiwork of the prep industry. Consequently, the Bill
tions, some of whom have attained state’s powerful coaching industry to regulate the hitherto unregulated
university proportions — tabled in lobby that wields huge political clout coaching institutes of Rajasthan, has
the state’s legislative assembly on in Rajasthan which hosts an estimat- national ramifications.
March 19 by Premchand Bairwa, ed 1,600 test prep schools in Kota, Beyond the rising incidence of
Deputy Chief and higher education Sikar, and Jaipur. student suicides, another major
minster in the state’s BJP govern- The All Coaching Institutes Maha- fallout of the multiplication of coach-
ment, encountered stiff resistance sang, a representative organisation ing institutes is the proliferation of
from MLAs, including some from the of test prep/coaching schools, has ‘dummy schools’. To write major
ruling party. The Bill which proposes denounced the Bill as detrimental public entrance exams such as JEE,
establishing a state-level regula- to the industry and threatened to NEET, CUET and others, passing
tory authority for coaching centres, take to the streets if it is passed. The school-leaving board exams is man-
mandates the registration of tuition Mahasangh contends that the Bill datory.
centres with more than 50 students disproportionately targets Kota, and This requirement has given rise to
and subjects them to monitoring invests government bureaucrats with the phenomenon of ‘dummy’ schools.
by a district committee with civil excessive discretionary power that These are schools duly affiliated
court powers, was not passed by the will drive “boutique coaching insti- with recognised exam boards that
legislative assembly and has been tutes” out of business. ‘outsource’ their teaching-learning
referred to a Select Committee for The town of Kota (pop 1.5 million) obligation to coaching institutes.
further review and recommenda- which has inspired a full-length Dummy schools levy nominal tuition
tions. commercial movie (Kota Factory) fees and are compensated by coach-
This despite the Bill having has become globally infamous for ing institutes. With a rising number
been significantly diluted from the its 100-plus test prep swot coaching of parents according higher prior-
original draft released for public institutes that intensively drill- ity to coaching over holistic formal
comment in July 2024. Notably, a and-skill more than 2 lakh students schooling, attendance in higher

14 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2025