Patna has been in turmoil during the last two days when over 1,000 students rampaged to protest alleged cheating and fleecing by the coaching institutes. Half a dozen of students are reportedly injured in clashes with police and one student has died when a coaching centre security guard opened fire. The students thrashed the owner of a private coaching institute, destroyed property, threw stones and tore banners and posters of some institutes.
“The coaching institutes have cheated us. Our plus-two exams are due from early March but the courses have not been completed even though we had paid the full money in advance,” said one of the protesting students.
Another student said - “Coaching institutes in Patna are minting money in the name of providing help to students. They have nothing to do with education, it is a totally commercial venture to dupe students”.
The students’ protest against coaching institutes is not confined to Patna, but reports are coming from other parts of Bihar also such as Biharsharif, Chapra, Darbhanga etc. The agitation has also captured the attention of various political parties. RJD chief Lalu Prasad, LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan and others leaders have condemned the police action against students and criticised the state government for promoting private coaching institutes to exploit students. Congress leader Pappu Yadav was arrested on the charge of trying to instigate students. He submitted a memorandum to Bihar Governor demanding that all coaching institutes be closed.
In a significant step to check mushrooming of coaching institutes, Bihar government is likely to enact a stringent law to regulate their functioning, making it the first state to do so. According to Bihar HRD minister H N Singh, the proposed law will have provision for mandatory registration. It will also look into the infrastructure, students enrolled, fees being charged, quality of faculty etc. However, Dy chief minister Sushil Modi is not sure about the shape of the proposed legislation and how it will address the practical problems in its implementation.
Roaring business of coaching institutes and students’ exploitation are well known facts and we have been hearing about them for several years now and it will not be correct to say that ‘fleecing’ by coaching institutes is a new phenomenon. Today, every student rush to coaching institutes to shape up his/her professional career. In many cases no one is bothered about the infrastructure, fees and quality of faculty. In some cases of reputed institutes, even if there is no seat available, the students do not mind sitting on the windows because their career is so precious. The earning of the coaching institutes may also be guessed from the fact that some institutes pay their faculty much more than what an IIT faculty is paid.
So when there is a mad rush for the coaching institutes, it becomes very difficult to demarcate what is legal or illegal and what is ethical or unethical. Some form of exploitation therefore cannot be ruled out.
I remember, Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal raised this question last year and proposed that IITs should not admit students only on the basis of performance in the entrance examinations, but some weightage must also be given to +2 marks. He also said, “Students are neglecting their studies in schools and focussing more on coaching institutes.” At that time almost all the poitical leaders of Bihar ctiticised Sibal’s proposal as being anti-Bihari.
All this leads us to believe that all is not well with our education system.
Dr P R Prasad, Patna