The coaching economy – The Hindu

For a State that has a strong position against competitive examinations, on the grounds that they are loaded against disadvantaged groups, Tamil Nadu is home to a thriving coaching industry. There are coaching centres for a wide range of exams, including professional degrees such as MBBS, engineering, and management, besides the civil services, State government posts, and teacher recruitment.

After the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) was made mandatory in 2018 and the Tamil Nadu government’s attempts to get the State exempted from its purview failed, the government started separate, free training sessions for government school students to help them sit for the medical entrance test. For several years, the State has been offering training to crack Joint Engineering Examination (JEE), the gateway to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and other Central government-funded engineering institutions. The State government also runs programmes for the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exams, footing the cost of boarding and lodging for those who have qualified in the preliminary round. Coaching centres for exams to other professional courses, like chartered accountancy, have mushroomed. However, the State government has no data on the number of these centres or of students enrolled therein.

Anecdotal evidence from parents and students shows they are not averse to taking personal loans to pay for additional coaching if it ensures that the students will get the coveted seat in a professional course. But there are also disappointments. Recently, students of FIIT JEE coaching institute took to the streets in East Delhi alleging that the teachers had shifted to a competitor overnight, leaving them in the lurch. A video on social media cited an old advertisement by FIIT JEE that gave teachers assured hours with students and thus, salaries.

Many years ago, online edutech platforms took the education front by storm, offering attractive packages for students. Their importance grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, but most have disappeared since. Many subscribers to these platforms feel cheated. A homemaker in Tiruchi recalls that when her son enrolled in a four-year package from Class VII at Byju’s, he was more attracted by its offer of a free tablet than the actual coaching. “For the first two years, they kept their promise, with engaging video lessons and a tutor to personally monitor my son’s progress periodically. But when he reached Class X, all the learning materials had become e-books and there were no teachers to clarify doubts,” she says. She had paid ₹40,000, hoping to prepare him for a career in engineering, but he eventually selected the commerce stream as he was not tutored properly in core mathematics during the lockdown period, she says.

Attractive terms

Aspirants can join well-known private coaching centres for NEET and JEE through nationwide talent tests. Good scores mean a scholarship. A Chennai-based mother who has enrolled her son in a popular coaching centre for NEET says he sat for the talent test in September. “We have enrolled him in a two-year integrated programme for NEET. They teach the CBSE syllabus, and it costs around ₹2.5 lakh. But if the score is good, you may have to pay less, maybe ₹1.5 to ₹2 lakh,” she says.

The scholarship test syllabus is based on the Class X subjects. Students also take the mock tests on the websites of the coaching institutes. Some online platforms operating from north India use Hindi to teach concepts. Renu*, a CA aspirant, says she joined online coaching two years ago. While coaching for the foundation course was in English, the intermediate lessons are being conducted in Hindi, a language she is not familiar with. “Most of the students attending the online class speak Hindi, so the teacher takes lessons in that language, with some explanations in English. In addition to accountancy, I have picked up Hindi,” she says.

She is preparing for two intermediate papers through two separate online institutes, paying over ₹6,000 for each subject. “I decided not to take the consolidated package, costing ₹60,000 for all subjects, as I want to study each through multiple tuition sources,” she says.

Her father said the exposure to online education during the lockdown helped Renu, who found it easy to understand subjects covered in CA. She scanned videos on YouTube and peer user reviews before deciding on online coaching. “Many professional chartered accountants are also conducting online courses, so the students are exposed to the subjects from those in the field from all over India,” he says.

Teacher poaching

The competition among coaching centres is cut-throat. The problem at FIIT JEE in Delhi was that teachers had moved to a competitor and students were asked to report to the new coaching centre. It is normal for teachers to move to a coaching centre that offers higher salaries and better perks, says an industry insider. “Faculty [members] generally have the contact details of their students. When they switch base, they inform their students who automatically follow the teachers.”

Ankur Jain, FIIT JEE director of academics in Chennai, says 250 to 300 students of the 1,000-odd students of the Tamil Nadu centres get into IITs every year. FIIT JEE runs offline centres in Chennai and Coimbatore and the courses continue to be offered, he says.

On Thursday last, Aakash Educational Services Limited announced in Chennai that it would start 132 centres in the country. Deepak Mehrotra, managing director and chief executive officer of Aakash, says that based on a survey done last year and “untoward incidents” reported from Kota, Aakash has decided to open centres in tier 3 and 4 towns.

“We are finding that at the new centres, more girls are joining us. Secondly, JEE (Advanced) has changed but the coaching system has not adapted to it. We have conceptualised Invictus and launched it in Tamil Nadu. Centres will be run in Chennai, Tiruchi, Coimbatore, and Namakkal,” Mr. Mehrotra says. In due course, a centre will be launched in Madurai too. The new courseware has been developed by a cohort of 500 teachers with a “history of sending students to the IITs. The cohort has a history of sending more than 1 lakh students to the IITs,” he says.

The faculty members’ future is determined by the performance of their students at the coaching centres, say teachers at these centres. S. Srinivasan, a former teacher of a coaching centre in Salem, says that at the NEET centres, a teacher’s job depends on the number of students qualifying in the test. “To make more students qualify, we must find shortcuts for answers and train the students by conducting regular tests. The centres also arrange for loans from the private banks to pay for the coaching and the loans must be repaid in a year. The parents struggle to repay the loans. If a student does not qualify, his or her parents take another loan for another round of coaching,” he says.

For competitive exams such as the TNPSC, retired schoolteachers are preferred. When coaching centres shut down, teachers opt for positions at private schools, despite lower salaries. “They have more openings in Salem district and teachers have no option,” Mr. Srinivasan says.

Commercialisation

CREA Children’s Academy Matriculation Higher Secondary School correspondent J. Christy Subhadra says the commercialisation of education is impacting children from government schools as well. As the school has no tie-up with popular coaching institutes, some parents have patronised nearby private tuition centres. “Students of senior classes go there after school, study until 11 p.m., and return for regular classes in the morning,” she says.

A private tutor who offers classes for a small group of students in Tiruchi says some of his students are sleep-deprived and cannot concentrate. A government NEET instructor in Madurai says that though the government provides free coaching at government schools and dedicated centres, many students stay away. “Parents who can afford the fees enrol their wards in private classes, but it is saddening to see even parents with poor spending capacity borrow to pay the private class fees,” she says. Education activist S. Umamaheshwari says the middle class that strives to achieve the next level of education is the target of the private coaching centres. “Many great people we admire for their success in various fields are those who did not get stuck in these education markets,” she points out.

In Coimbatore, the profile of the parents spending more than ₹1 lakh for year-long training indicates that private coaching for NEET and JEE are essentially for students from the upper middle class and aristocratic social groups. These parents aren’t complaining about the cost as quality training is all they look for. Since coaching centres also offer Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) options, they suit salaried people as well. Coaching centres pay lucrative remuneration to experienced faculty members who are sourced from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where the pass percentage has always been high. Harikrishnan, a coaching centre faculty member, says a large chunk of students of the centres run by established players are wards of industrialists and information technology professionals. The tuition cost is much lower at the centres run by the faculty members of local colleges, he says.

Ajay, whose daughter is undergoing NEET training at an established centre at weekends, says students from the CBSE stream have an edge over their counterparts in coping with the rigorous coaching and exacting exam schedules. While some CBSE schools offer training beyond school hours for NEET and JEE, there are some parents who let their wards complete Class XII and then send them for full-time, year-long NEET/JEE coaching to avoid stress.

Veranda Learning Solutions, a relatively new player, trains students for CA, CMA, and government jobs. Praveen Menon, its chief marketing officer, says coaching helps candidates understand negative marking systems. Several lakh candidates apply for the few thousand government posts, he points out.

The culture of dummy schools as found in north India is slowly picking up in Tamil Nadu, laments independent education consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi. “Entrance examinations will make it tough for lower middle-class students to compete. Today, the minimum cost is ₹40,000 and can go up to ₹3 lakh. The National Testing Agency collected data about parental income and even asked whether the student went to coaching centres. The Agency should put up these details on the public domain,” he says. Coaching centres are not doing a service. “Look at how they offer scholarships. They are taking advantage of the ‘one nation, one exam’ policy. A topper in a competitive exam is featured by three coaching centres. How is that possible?” he asks. The solution lies in improving the school syllabus and reforming the examination system for Class XII, he says.

(*Name changed)

(With inputs from Nahla Nainar in Tiruchi, Palanivel Rajan in Madurai, M. Sabari in Salem, and R. Krishnamoorthy in Coimbatore.)