Colleges promote coaching institutes on their campuses to make a fast buck

Commercialisation of education has reached brazen levels of exploitation. A few Delhi University colleges stand accused of tying up with private coaching institutes to allow them access to the college premises to conduct classes for various examinations. A college promotes private coaching classes for UPSC examinations. Another recommends on-campus classes for this year’s Common University Entrance Test (CUET). Students taking admission to undergraduate courses are the targeted “clients”. A three-year coaching session can cost up to Rs 1.5 lakh per person. It is big money at no cost. These private centres gain legitimacy too, thanks to the collusion with colleges of repute. A group of students and teachers is protesting the tie-ups. Shockingly, public-funded institutions supposed to give subsidised education are involved in this commercial activity. The University Grants Commission and the Union Ministry of Education must nip this exercise in the bud. Private coaching classes for IAS aspirants have been around for decades, propagating the myth that cracking the exam is impossible without coaching. It is nothing but a myth, an expensive one because in recent years many candidates have made it to the IAS and other services without private coaching. A candidate from rural Bihar secured 10th rank last year with no coaching. The son of a cloth seller got into IAS with self-study. A girl from Haryana cleared the UPSC in her final attempt without attending coaching classes. A majority of successful candidates who hail from the countryside are clearing the examination on the strength of their fortitude.

This is not to say coaching classes should be avoided. Those who can afford the fees can go ahead. However, colleges cannot join the business by teaming up with private coaching centres. That is not their remit. The bane of the Indian education system is two-fold. One, the formal system of education is affected by an unscientific, even controversial, approach to selecting the curriculum and teaching and evaluation methods. Two, as a result, private tuitions are now a necessary evil, running a parallel system that is gradually eating into the core of formal education. The tie-up experiment deliberately undermines institutional education. China recently found out how deeply entrenched the malaise of private coaching is when it banned the expensive private tutoring industry; parents merely turned to the black market for tutors. This is not the only facet of commercialisation that plagues education in India. The Department of Education recently intervened in the money-making methods of private schools by warning them not to force parents to buy books, uniforms and even shoes from shops on the school premises or specific private vendors at expensive rates. It also asked schools not to change the colour or design of school uniforms for at least three years to plug an additional source of easy profit. Most private engineering and medical colleges exist for profit in the form of high capitation fees. What next? Home delivery of education?