Three students died due to water logging in Rau’s IAS Coaching Center in Old Rajendra Nagar, New Delhi on Sunday. These students were preparing for UPSC. This accident happened due to rain water filling the library running in the basement of the coaching centre. After this incident, students started protesting in Delhi demanding justice for the candidates, so the government has set up an inquiry on the matter which will submit its report in 30 days.
Last year, on June 15, more than 60 students were injured when an electricity meter caught fire in a coaching class in Mukherjee Nagar, New Delhi. Very few people will remember the incident of fire in Surat coaching center 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.
The incidents of suicide of students are continuously increasing in Kota city of Rajasthan, which is called coaching city. Political parties that talk about doing politics for public welfare are only doing politics, sometimes they are holding dharnas and sometimes they are discussing in the House. But this discussion never reaches any necessary solution. Today’s situation is screaming that if no strict law is made then this will continue to happen.
In the same year, huge fire accidents took place in the coaching centers of Silchar (Assam), Jaipur and Panchkula, that is, no matter what the city is in the country, the lives of the students in coaching are at the mercy of God. We need to note that the tragic incident that took place in New Delhi follows the Delhi High Court order on May 11, directing the MCD to seal all unsafe buildings in Delhi within four weeks. Had ordered.
Whose responsibility was it why the court order was not followed?
Everyone knows that 80% of the coaching institutes in New Delhi are being run in basements. Apart from parking or storing, no other work can be done in the basement, then the big question is that the business worth thousands of crores is running in the basement on whose instructions and under whose influence and no action is taken. What is more important is that even the government is not able to properly control this big business because there are no clear rules. As far as the incident in New Delhi is concerned, according to a student named Abhimanyu Garg, on June 26 this year, a complaint was made that Rao IAS Coaching Center was running in the basement without NOC. Some day some incident may happen but MCD did not take any action.
This is the big reason for arbitrariness
The reality is that there are no regulation rules, monitoring regarding coaching institutes in the country or the absence of any independent department to control these institutes is also a major reason for arbitrariness. This is the reason whether it is an incident of flood, fire or coaching is being conducted in a building built ignoring safety standards or incidents of suicide by students are increasing in institutions. There should be a promise of discussion or action on these only after the incident. At best, the matter is closed by setting up an investigation committee. Then after the next few days, a new incident comes to light, on which our governments and policy makers need to think.
Think how unfortunate this is
The problem faced by coaching institutes is not only of facilities, nor of accidents. The problem is to create excessive mental stress on children in coaching institutes and also to impart education on the basis of rote learning. It is also worth noting here that the education quality of these coaching centers is also not of that level, which takes the students on a journey of deep and profound knowledge through education, and increases the thinking ability or wisdom in the children. This is just technical and course based education at a very shallow level. In matters of NEET JEE, there is also keeping children away from the school system, extra curriculum, core curriculum etc. When we get news of coaching institutes being involved in paper out incidents, we realize how much loss they are causing to the country and no strict action is being taken against them.
What changed despite NEP?
Certainly, under the National Education Policy that came in 2020, the government tried to impose some restrictions, but in the information we received from many states under the Right to Information, till now everyone from the Secretary to the District has failed to follow this policy. No order has been issued till the officer level. Think how unfortunate this is.
Our education system should be such that it definitely reduces or eliminates students’ dependency on coaching, but the economic impact of coaching institutes is so high that no one can show the courage to end it or reduce it. Don’t want to show. There are points like 4.36, 4.37, 4.42 and 2.3.4.3 in the Central Government’s NEP-2020 which are very wonderful and advocate reducing the dependence on coaching in the education system, but even after 4 years, the government is not following them. Could not get it done through the authorities. These incidents reveal the activeness of governments and officials in the context of coaching.
The abbot is also silent
In the era of social media, coaching has been glorified by many leaders in the field of education in such a way that children are unable to understand this trap. Call it a coaching director or the face of coaching who talks a lot about morality, honesty and integrity, they all become silent in difficult situations. These so called teachers have millions of followers on YouTube, millions of people listen to them. His way of teaching is such that it is fun to attend his classes but it has nothing to do with the content of 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 do coaching to become a better person. He uses this sentence of his as a safety valve and students coming from poor or middle class families like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan take admission in coaching by paying money. Later, these people just make most of them better people and send them 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 Services Examination, then there is not even one percent chance of selection in it. According to the statistics, in 2013, 4.30 lakh students participated in the examination out of which only 990 students were selected, thus the pass percentage was 0.2. As far as 2024 is concerned, the coaching business has grown so much in the last 10 years that this year 13 lakh students have appeared for the examination out of which a maximum of 1000 students are to be selected. This shows that the market has only been enlarged. Even if the scope of selection is not even one percent.
The interesting thing is that the government issued a guideline in January 2024 itself for coaching institutes with a business turnover of about Rs 58,000 crore and expressed the hope that it will be followed within 3 months. The irony is that far from being followed, it seems as if even the local authorities, the education system and the higher education department have no idea about it. Keep in mind, these are the children of coaching who want to improve the future of themselves and their families by participating in competitions, but our system does not shy away from playing with their lives, will we become world leaders like this? This is the misfortune of our country. Certainly, if our governments and officials continue to behave like this, such incidents will continue to happen.