Private coaching centres earned sharp criticism from the minister for human resources development Prakash Javadekar. He is of the belief that these centres treat students as “slaves” under the garb of training them for admission to IITs and other such prestigious institutions. He said a decline in teaching standards in schools and colleges are also to blame for the increasing reliance on coaching centres.
What Hrd Minister Said
“It is a cause of worry…students from Class VIII become slaves of these coaching institutes. They are being taught to only face competitive exams. The coaching institutes are promoting rote learning and not imparting actual knowledge to the students.” Maintaining that teaching is now limited to textbook-learning, he said, “Very few teachers like to be asked questions, and this has prevented overall understanding of subjects and learning…. This is the reason coaching centres are getting stronger”
What Assocham Figures Say
According to an Assocham survey, close to 87% of primary and up to 95% higher secondary school students attend private coaching classes. The Supreme Court had in February said private coaching centres in the country need to be “regulated” as these cannot be “wiped out” and asked the Centre to ponder over framing guidelines for it. Although no formal plans has been made by the HRD so far on framing guidelines for coaching centres, Odisha introduced the “Odisha Coaching Institutes Act 2017” in August to regulate them
Hrd Minister Made The Remark Here…
Javadekar raised his concerns at the launch of the second edition of Smart India Hackathon 2018, organised at the College of Engineering, Pune. The Smart India Hackathon is an initiative of the HRD Ministry, along with the All-India Council of Technical Education. It is aimed at involving the country’s engineering students on working to find solutions to issues plaguing the society.
