Coaching centres study age-limit guidelines of education ministry

Some say parents, students, institutes will find alternatives to cater to demand

A day after the education ministry issued guidelines prohibiting coac­hing centres from enrolling stud­ents under 16 years of age, institutes on Fri­day assessed the potential hit to business.

At Kota in Rajasthan, where more than 200,000 students pour in every year to enroll for coaching classes, a record number of suicides last year drew media attention and prompted the administration and institutes to address mental health of aspirants.
 

An official at one of the city’s oldest coaching centres pointed out that the institute does not admit students who are still in high school. “We take students from Classes XI and XII, and they are not under 16 years of age,” said the official, who declined to be named as he was not authorised to talk to the media. 
 

Several institutes, however, offer inte­g­r­ated courses that are designed for schoolchildren to ace Olympiads and talent search exams that serve as a prelude to the high-pressure IIT-JEE (Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination) or the pre-medical Nat­io­nal Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).
 

A spokesperson of Kota’s Allen Career Institute, said, “We welcome these guidelines and look forward to working with the government in shaping them for the benefit and well-being of students.”
 

An official at a Delhi-based coaching institute for engineering aspirants said the question of not enrolling students under 16 was a sensitive matter and too early to be commented upon.
 

“The institute is having discussions on the new guidelines. But the truth is that even parents want coaching classes for their children as they view school education as basic,” he said.
 

Mayank Kumar, co-founder and managing director of edtech unicorn upGrad, welcomed the new guidelines in the con­t­ext of concerns around mental health.
 

“We expect the guidelines to have an im­pact on the coaching market ecosyst­em for students across grades IX and X. But we need to realise that the dem­a­nd for such coaching is very high. Parents, students and coaching institutes will find alternatives to cater to the demand,” he said, adding, “New innovative models, including online alterna­tive or school integration for under-16 learners, are expected in the light of these guidelines.”
 

Maheshwer Peri, founder of online career counselling and education services firm Careers360, said the guidelines were much desired. “Schools teach you a lot more than just cracking an examination.”
 

“Parents put children in coaching cla­sses early, believing they will have an edge. This is not necessarily proven by data. A majority of students, who apply to IITs, are largely ones who take coaching classes in XI and XII,” Peri said.
 

According to him, 25-35 per cent of the business of coaching institutes is via foundation courses for Classes V to X.
 

That component of their business will be hit, he said. But, as coaching institutes also pointed out, since education as a subject is part of the concurrent list, states would need to pass laws in accordance with the central guidelines to enforce the diktat in schools affiliated to state boards.
 

The ministry’s guidelines, which incl­ude a bar on misleading promises of guaranteed marks and ranks, came in the backdrop of a rise in student suicides.
 

Between 2018 and 2022, 59,153 students died by suicide, a 28 per cent in­cr­ease in five years. In 2022, 13,000 students died by suicide, according to the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) “Accide­n­tal Deaths & Suicides in India”.

 

According to a National Sample Sur­vey Office (NSSO) report, one in every four students in India takes private coaching. The highest proportion was in Tripura, followed by West Bengal, Bihar and Chandi­garh followed.

 

On average, each student incurs Rs 2,128 in private coaching for any course for one academic session. Higher secondary students in private-aided institu­tions incur Rs 3,532 on average, while those in government institutions spend Rs 2,335 on private coaching. Currently, 1,258 active firms pro­vide education/training through offline coaching centres in India.

Note: Annual revenue is for offline coaching centres catering to individuals across age-groups and disciplines, as of latest available data | 

Source: Tracxn