Three students died on Sunday due to waterlogging in Rau’s IAS coaching centre in Old Rajendra Nagar, New Delhi. These students were preparing for UPSC. This accident happened due to rainwater filling in the library running in the basement of the coaching centre. After this incident, students have started protesting in Delhi demanding justice for the candidates, while the government has ordered an inquiry into the matter which will submit its report in 30 days.
On June 15 last year, more than 60 students were injured when the electricity meter caught fire in a coaching centre in Mukherjee Nagar, New Delhi. Very few people will remember the fire incident in a coaching centre in Surat in 2019 and the death of students due to it. In 2020, during a coaching class in Bhajanpura, two roofs collapsed and four students died on the spot.
In Kota city of Rajasthan, which is known as coaching city, incidents of students committing suicide are increasing continuously. Political parties who talk about doing politics for public concerns are only doing politics, sometimes they are protesting and sometimes they are discussing in the house. But these discussions never reach any important solution. Today’s situation is screaming that if no strict law is made, then such incidents will keep happening.
This year, there were horrific fire accidents in coaching institutes in Silchar (Assam), Jaipur and Panchkula, which means that no matter which city in the country, the lives of students in coaching institutes are at the mercy of God. We need to note that the tragic incident that happened in New Delhi happened after the Delhi High Court’s order of 11 May in which the court had ordered the MCD to seal all unsafe buildings in Delhi within four weeks.
Why was that court order not followed, whose responsibility was this
Everyone knows that 80% of coaching institutes in New Delhi are being run in basements. Apart from parking or storage, no other work can be done in basements, so the big question is that at whose behest and under whose influence business worth thousands of crores runs in basements and no action is taken. The bigger thing is that even the government is not able to control this big business properly because there are no clear rules. As far as the New Delhi incident is concerned, according to a student named Abhimanyu Garg, a complaint was made on 26 June this year that Rao IAS Coaching Center is running in basement without NOC. Any incident can happen any day but MCD did not take any action.
This is a major reason for arbitrariness
The reality is that there is no regulation, monitoring or any independent body or department to control these institutes in the country. This is also a big reason for arbitrariness. This is the reason that whether it is an incident of flood, fire or coaching being conducted in a building built by ignoring safety standards or the increasing incidents of suicide by students in the institutes. There is only discussion and promise of action on these after the incident. At the most, the matter is closed by setting up an investigation committee. Then after the next few days a new incident comes to light. Our governments and policy makers need to think about this.
Think about it, how unfortunate that is
The problem with coaching institutes is not only about facilities, nor is it about accidents. The problem is also about giving excessive mental stress to children in coaching institutes and imparting education based on rote learning. Another point to be noted here is that the education quality of these coaching centres is also not of that level which takes students on a deep and profound knowledge journey through education, and increases the thinking ability or discretion in children. This is only technical and course based education at a very shallow level. In the case of NEET JEE, there is also keeping children away from the school system, keeping them away from extra curriculum, core curriculum, etc. On getting news of involvement of coaching institutes in paper leak incidents, one realises how much damage they are doing to the country and no strict action is being taken against them.
What changed despite NEP?
Certainly, the government tried to impose some restrictions under the National Education Policy that came in 2020, but according to the information we received from many states under the Right to Information, no order has been issued yet from the Secretary to the District Officer level to follow this policy. Think how unfortunate this is.
Our education system should be such that it definitely reduces or eliminates the dependency of students on coaching, but the economic impact of coaching institutes is so high that no one can or does not want to show the courage to end or reduce it. In the Central Government’s NEP-2020, there are points like 4.36, 4.37, 4.42 and 2.3.4.3 which are very impressive and advocate reducing the education system’s dependency on coaching, but even after 4 years, the government has not been able to implement them through its officials. These incidents reveal the activism of governments and officials in the context of coaching.
The head priest is also silent
In the era of social media, coaching has been glorified by all the leaders of the education sector in such a way that children are unable to understand this trap. The coaching operators or the face of coaching who talk big about morality, honesty and truthfulness, all of them become silent in difficult circumstances. These so-called teachers have millions of followers on YouTube, lakhs of people listen to them. Their way of teaching is such that it is fun to attend their classes but it has nothing to do with the content of the civil services examination. Just like they are unable to show any use of their morality on the ground.
These teachers clearly say that coaching is very important. If you do not get success, then take coaching to become a better person. They use this statement of theirs as a safety valve and students from poor or middle class families of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan take admission in coaching by paying money. Later these people make most of them better people and send them back to their homes because the selection percentage of these people in the Union Public Service Commission is very low or zero.
If we talk about the students selected in the civil service examination, then the chances of selection are not even one percent. According to the data, in 2013, 4.30 lakh students participated in the examination in which only 990 students were selected, thus the pass percentage was 0.2. Talking about 2024, the coaching business has grown so much in the last 10 years that this year 13 lakh students have given the exam, out of which a maximum of 1000 students are to be selected. This shows that only the market has been expanded. Even if the chances of selection are not even one percent.
The interesting thing is that the government issued a guideline in January 2024 for coaching institutes with a business of about Rs 58,000 crore and hoped to follow it in 3 months. The irony is that far from following it, it seems as if even the local authorities, education system and higher education department do not have any information about it. Keep in mind, these are the coaching students who want to improve their and their family’s future by participating in the competition, but our system is not at all ashamed of playing with their lives, will we become Vishwaguru like this? This is the misfortune of our country. Certainly, if our governments and officials continue to work like this, then such incidents will keep happening continuously.