A Coaching Boom

The spotlight here is on the growing tribe of crorepatis that have made it big in the business of coaching, catering especially to students seeking admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

Back-of -the-envelope calculations show that coaching, concentrated in the Kakadeo area of Kanpur, is an approximately Rs 50 crore industry today.

Within a radius of one kilometre, Kakadeo houses at least 30 to 40 coaching institutes, most of them one-man shows, run by individual professors teaching a single subject.

For instance, if Asish Vishnoi teaches physics, O P Juneja is a mathematics professor. On the other hand, G D Verma teaches only chemistry at his institute while Ajay Narkar has carved a niche in physics.

Basically, in this small colony, individual teachers are brands and quote a price for their expertise: Rs 8,000 a month per subject.

Signs that the coaching business is flourishing are visible all over the place. Coaching institutes that began in ramshackled classrooms are moving into fully-airconditioned buildings that are being constructed. Most coaching schools are also adding new subjects.

At Kakdeo, coaching is now available for aspiring MBAs, for masters in computer application and for the medical entrance examinations And the city's coaching boom has, in turn, spawned eating joints, food supply chains and hostel accommodation.

According to those in the city's coaching industry, every year at least 10,000 students flock to Kakadeo as well as neighbouring colonies like Govindnagar, Shardanagar, Aryanagar, Swaroop Nagar that are also emerging as coaching hubs in the city.

Sanjay Sharma, counsellor at Pai Education, says that students come to Kanpur from all parts of Uttar Pradesh for coaching in engineering. He reckons that while the 10,000 strong student population spends nearly Rs 24 crore on education fee, a similar amount is spent on food and hostel accommodation.

Small wonder, then, that even organised coaching institute chains, especially those from Delhi, have spotted a big opportunity in Kanpur. Some such as Pai Education, Sachdevas, IMS and Career Point, have already moved in.

Predictably, tension is already brewing between the chains and the individual coaches who have been in the business here for several years.

And even though coaching institutes have sprung up in other UP towns like Agra, Aligarh, Allahbad, Varanasi, Gorapkhpur and Bareilly, Kakadeo in Kanpur continues to be king of the coaching business.

Its reputation has shot up after last years IIT entrance test results _ 225 of its students made it. In fact, the performance of students from the entire IIT-Kanpur zone (which includes UP and parts of Madya Pradesh) was spectacular. Of the 4,600 students who made it to the IITs last year, 2,700 were from this zone.

Coaching industry experts say that the most significant aspect of Kanpur emerging as a major coaching hub, perhaps, is the fact that the centre here is run by IIT graduates. Ajay Narkar, who runs coaching classes, is an ex-IITian and moved into the Kakadeo area some years back.

"We have a clear advantage over others, in the sense, that we've qualified for the examination for which we are imparting education," says Sarvesh Singh, another IIT engineer who teaches at Kakadeo.

"We know IIT inside out and are able to give them the necessary inputs," he adds.

While this may or may not be true, but there is little doubt that Kakadeo's millionaires at centrestage today when it comes to the coaching business.