The Dark Side of India's Coaching Culture: Saving India's Students from the Coaching Industry Trap

It was a tragic day in Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar. Three young students, full of dreams and aspirations, met an untimely end. They were preparing to crack the UPSC examination, a goal they had been tirelessly working towards. Unfortunately, they drowned in the library of a coaching institute, which was illegally operating in the building’s basement. This incident has brought to light the severe challenges faced by India’s students and the dark side of the coaching industry.

The death of these students is a stark reminder of the threats posed by India’s parallel education system – the coaching industry. Municipal and local authorities have failed to ensure that coaching centres adhere to rules and regulations. As a result, students' lives are put at risk. This tragedy should be a wake-up call for structural reform in India’s education sector. How does the drowning of civil service aspirants in drain water reflect on our nation? It certainly does not paint a rosy picture for either our present or future.India’s coaching industry is a burgeoning giant. There are over 68,000 coaching institutes in India, all selling the dream of a successful career to millions of students.

The revenue of the Indian coaching industry is expected to reach Rs 1.34 lakh crore by 2028. The GST collected from these institutes over the past five years has more than doubled to Rs 5,517 crore. This indicates not just a growing demand for coaching institutes but also a rise in the number of students opting for coaching due to the failures of India’s formal education system and the aggressive marketing by these institutes.

The UPSC coaching industry alone is valued at over Rs 3,000 crore. Despite the revenue it generates, students are often subjected to sub-human living conditions, poor infrastructure, and immense mental and psychological stress. A visit to Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar can reveal the harsh reality of this industry.

Consider these numbers that show how the coaching industry is primarily a profit-making machine, driven by revenue rather than a genuine desire to help students realize their dreams. In Kota, the coaching capital of India for engineering and medical entrance exams, at least 26 aspirants committed suicide in 2023, the highest since 2015. Nearly 130 students have taken their own lives since 2015 in Kota alone. Despite these tragedies, India’s coaching culture remains unchanged, with matters only worsening.

The inability of our education system to prepare students for competitive exams or equip them with necessary job market skills has led to the mushrooming of the coaching industry. Coaching centres have become mandatory for students who wish to crack tough examinations. Those who choose not to enroll in such centres or simply cannot afford them are at a distinct disadvantage compared to those who slog it out in Kota or Delhi’s Mukherjee and Rajinder Nagars.Over the past few years, Indians have seen a new addition to the urban landscape – big, colorful flex banners and posters marketing coaching institutes to aspirational families. These institutes sell what matters most to Indians: a lucrative career with guaranteed success. The success is obviously not guaranteed, but coaching centres promise it just the same.

If UPSC, JEE, NEET, and CAT coaching institutes were not enough, we now also have centres promising students excellent performance in the Common University Entrance Test (CUET). Furthermore, coaching institutes are luring Indian youth with the promise of job opportunities. Given the struggle of the youth to find employment, coaching centres that promise to equip them with necessary job market skills are thriving.These centres force students to live in unhygienic, unsafe, and crammed ghettos and study in poorly ventilated rooms. The revenue generated by coaching institutes comes from the pockets of modest Indian families who want their children to succeed. Most students come from lower-middle or middle-income families. Instead of improving students’ learning and living experiences, coaching centres spend most of their money on marketing and advertising, as well as paying handsome salaries to faculty members, many of whom are former bureaucrats, doctors, or engineers. The owners of these institutes make a fortune out of the misery of desperate students.It is well known that coaching institutes oversell the idea of competitive examinations to the youth. Many believe that enrolling in a “good" institute is all it takes to make the cut. The founders and bosses of coaching centres are fully aware of the demand-supply deficit in the number of students sitting for competitive exams versus those who succeed.

In 2022, over 11 lakh aspirants sat for the UPSC exam, competing for a mere 1,022 seats. Similarly, more than 14 million students sat for JEE, competing for roughly 59,917 seats. For NEET, 2.3 million candidates vied for just about one lakh seats.

The commercialization of education in India has been driven largely by the coaching industry’s relentless pursuit of profit and stardom. However, the coaching industry, for all its faults, is ultimately a business. A significant portion of the blame also lies with India’s outdated education system, which continually fails students. This failure has led to a shadow system where students enroll in dummy schools to complete their higher education while attending classes at coaching centres focused strictly on academics.

The time to regulate the coaching industry is now. Earlier this year, the central government issued guidelines on how coaching centres should operate. However, as recent tragedies have shown, these guidelines exist only on paper. Local administrative authorities and state governments appear uninterested in enforcing these guidelines, thereby putting students' lives in danger. The central government must bring out a national law to regulate the coaching industry and ensure compliance. This is the least India owes its youth.The plight of students in India is a reflection of the systemic failures in both our education system and the coaching industry. It's time for universities and the government to take urgent action to address these issues and create a more supportive and effective education system for the future of our nation.