With about four years of experience in coaching institutes for IIT-JEE in Kota, Delhi, Jaipur and Patna and now almost at the exit point from this profession, i wish to target the 'ouch' factor attached to the coaching industry alongside analyzing its contributions in the light of imminent retributions.
Despite most of the current generation having faced one or the other entrance examination and hence been through the coaching experience, there is a widespread perception that coaching institutes are all about money. Its branding is more of an 'evil' or at best 'a necessary evil'.
Money brings negative publicity
Salaries reaching astronomical figures and profits crossing 100% barrier, there is a definite feeling of shock rather than awe surrounding the extraordinary growth of coaching institutions. Bansal Classes, my erstwhile employer, reportedly had annual profit as well as income of 125 crores in 2009-10, with all expenses met with interest on fees deposited in the beginning of the session. In 3 years, there is no field that gives you the hike from 4 LPA to 40 LPA. The highest salary figure in Kota reportedly being 1.5 crores per annum for teaching Inorganic Chemistry!
But, you also need to go into the rigors that one goes through and also the fact that not everyone gets such a hike. A Kota teacher, on an average delivers four lectures a day of minimum 90 minutes for most of the year. The duration of the lecture extends to two hours in most of the cases. For a number of faculty members, it's 5 lectures per day from 8 in the morning to 9 in the evening for the whole of academic year. Its not surprising that three to four years into the profession, people start facing health problems such as swelling and pain in ankle, backache, spondylitis and even speech problems. Moreover, the commitment to quality teaching is such that every question in the monthly tests used to be fresh and original in Bansal Classes.
The lack of vision and strong will to cater to the larger goods of society has definitely cost the industry a bad reputation as most of the stakeholders are focused on maximizing earnings. They need to understand that if you go on exploiting the riches of society without giving it back, it may cost you highly one day. All I mean to say is that there are very few examples where resource-less are provided free education alongwith other facilities. Parents of Rajesh, one of my students at Kota, had to mortgage their land to pay for his stay and coaching fees. He was under severe stress due to frequent reminders by his parents regarding the mortgage. Being an extraordinary student, his only fault is that he was born in such a poor family which cant even afford basic needs properly and a selfish society which cant educate its meritorious children. Not to mention the wonder called Super 30 in Patna, which has got accolades disproportionate to its achievements. The need of the hour being devoting a decent share of profits towards education of the deserving and needy.
Whats so vicious about coaching institutes
First, they charge you very high fees: 80,000 towards only tuition fee for a year for IIT-JEE coaching. Average cost of preparation for a two year period comes out to be around 3 lacs.
Next, they are seemingly depriving the deserving but poor of their success. The fact being they are just making money for providing genuine quality education to the people who can afford it, due to lack of policies governing them. Their very existence being facilitated by the neglect of school education in India and encouraged by the increased incomes of middle class in the last decade.
Lastly, they are a big threat to the existing system of schooling in India as increasingly high percentage of engineering and medical aspirants in classes IX-XII are opting for 100% coaching and zero schooling, creating the danger of leaving schools redundant.
The poor state of mainstream education in India
Why a necessity
In such a scenario, you are free to imagine the level of science and mathematics of class IX-XII students and the kind of answers you are likely to get from these students. Having been exposed to this all through my teaching career, I can assure you that had it not been for coaching institutions, the majority of students even at IITs would have had shocking levels of mathematics, physics and chemistry.
For me, coaching institutes represent an indispensable system of supplementary education. The poor standards of classroom teaching all across the country and emphasis on rote learning rather than understanding, had created the need for such a system. The numerous institutions that have mushroomed all over the country are just catering to the need. If not so, why would students from as far as Assam to Kerala flock Kota coachings to follow their instructions 24*7 without going to school for a single class: all of this being voluntary. Right from the quality of textbooks to the content and pattern of board and other school exams, every aspect of the existing school system is way below acceptable levels. Teaching in almost all schools being a formality with zero innovation and zero concern towards conceptual understanding, is the root cause of the mass shift from schools to coaching. Lack of motivation, incentives and attractive salaries have aided to the systemic degeneration in the long run.
What coaching institutes have done for the students, no government scheme can do in foreseeable future. Graduates, Doctorates and professors from IITs teaching students of class XI and XII has, no doubt, done wonders to the standards of education.
We definitely need quality teaching to build a noble nation. A nation which is not happy by doing petty outsourced jobs from developed countries, but a nation which leaves developed countries behind in technological innovations, research and development. All this requires a major brainstorming over the existing system of school and college education in India plus increased spending by government on education.
Despite most of the current generation having faced one or the other entrance examination and hence been through the coaching experience, there is a widespread perception that coaching institutes are all about money. Its branding is more of an 'evil' or at best 'a necessary evil'.
Money brings negative publicity
Salaries reaching astronomical figures and profits crossing 100% barrier, there is a definite feeling of shock rather than awe surrounding the extraordinary growth of coaching institutions. Bansal Classes, my erstwhile employer, reportedly had annual profit as well as income of 125 crores in 2009-10, with all expenses met with interest on fees deposited in the beginning of the session. In 3 years, there is no field that gives you the hike from 4 LPA to 40 LPA. The highest salary figure in Kota reportedly being 1.5 crores per annum for teaching Inorganic Chemistry!
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| Bansal Classes, Kota |
The lack of vision and strong will to cater to the larger goods of society has definitely cost the industry a bad reputation as most of the stakeholders are focused on maximizing earnings. They need to understand that if you go on exploiting the riches of society without giving it back, it may cost you highly one day. All I mean to say is that there are very few examples where resource-less are provided free education alongwith other facilities. Parents of Rajesh, one of my students at Kota, had to mortgage their land to pay for his stay and coaching fees. He was under severe stress due to frequent reminders by his parents regarding the mortgage. Being an extraordinary student, his only fault is that he was born in such a poor family which cant even afford basic needs properly and a selfish society which cant educate its meritorious children. Not to mention the wonder called Super 30 in Patna, which has got accolades disproportionate to its achievements. The need of the hour being devoting a decent share of profits towards education of the deserving and needy.
Whats so vicious about coaching institutes
First, they charge you very high fees: 80,000 towards only tuition fee for a year for IIT-JEE coaching. Average cost of preparation for a two year period comes out to be around 3 lacs.
Next, they are seemingly depriving the deserving but poor of their success. The fact being they are just making money for providing genuine quality education to the people who can afford it, due to lack of policies governing them. Their very existence being facilitated by the neglect of school education in India and encouraged by the increased incomes of middle class in the last decade.
Lastly, they are a big threat to the existing system of schooling in India as increasingly high percentage of engineering and medical aspirants in classes IX-XII are opting for 100% coaching and zero schooling, creating the danger of leaving schools redundant.
Among Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, who is still alive? Only a little over a third of class 4 students interviewed as part of a five-city school survey in India got this one right, with a small percentage saying it is Mahatma Gandhi. As many as two-thirds of students, also from class 4, who were asked to state the length of a pencil — placed against a ruler — could not give the right answer.
Nearly half the students in classes 4, 6 and 8 thought the shape of a square object would change if it is tilted. And about 45 per cent of students in these classes seemed to believe that a spider has six legs, despite the arthropod being described or named as ‘eight-legged' in almost all Indian languages.
These are drawn from 89 of the country's top schools, each of which had a library, a laboratory and enough computers, and 93 per cent stated they had internet facilities. And 63 per cent of the parents of these children hold a degree, post-graduate degree or doctorate, and more than 41 per cent of the fathers were into their own business.
These are some of the findings of a ‘Quality Education Study' (QES) by Wipro and Educational Initiatives (EI), covering 23,000 students, 790 teachers and 54 principals from 89 schools across the country.
Why a necessity
In such a scenario, you are free to imagine the level of science and mathematics of class IX-XII students and the kind of answers you are likely to get from these students. Having been exposed to this all through my teaching career, I can assure you that had it not been for coaching institutions, the majority of students even at IITs would have had shocking levels of mathematics, physics and chemistry.
For me, coaching institutes represent an indispensable system of supplementary education. The poor standards of classroom teaching all across the country and emphasis on rote learning rather than understanding, had created the need for such a system. The numerous institutions that have mushroomed all over the country are just catering to the need. If not so, why would students from as far as Assam to Kerala flock Kota coachings to follow their instructions 24*7 without going to school for a single class: all of this being voluntary. Right from the quality of textbooks to the content and pattern of board and other school exams, every aspect of the existing school system is way below acceptable levels. Teaching in almost all schools being a formality with zero innovation and zero concern towards conceptual understanding, is the root cause of the mass shift from schools to coaching. Lack of motivation, incentives and attractive salaries have aided to the systemic degeneration in the long run.
What coaching institutes have done for the students, no government scheme can do in foreseeable future. Graduates, Doctorates and professors from IITs teaching students of class XI and XII has, no doubt, done wonders to the standards of education.
We definitely need quality teaching to build a noble nation. A nation which is not happy by doing petty outsourced jobs from developed countries, but a nation which leaves developed countries behind in technological innovations, research and development. All this requires a major brainstorming over the existing system of school and college education in India plus increased spending by government on education.
