Coaching Institutes: New Regulations A Step In Right Direction, But Implementation May Not Be Easy

Over the years, coaching institutes have thrived as millions of students across India flock to them for specialised coaching to crack a professional course or a government job. To lure students, many institutes resort to aggressive marketing, often making exaggerated claims, sometimes downright fake, about their students.

Many of these institutes violate the law, charge exorbitant fees and offer little transparency in what they do. A growing number of suicides by students of these institutes has also put the spotlight on their functioning and the need for regulation.

Things may change now. Last week, the Education Ministry issued the Guidelines for Registration and Regulation of Coaching Center 2024 to rein in coaching centres and their deceptive practices. The Secretariat had earlier highlighted the need to bring in stringent regulations for coaching institutes.

The guidelines come after last year's crackdown on coaching institutes. In December 2023, Consumer Affairs Minister of State Ashwini Kumar Choubey told parliament that the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) had issued 20 notices to IAS coaching institutes for misleading ads. He added the CCPA had imposed penalties on eight centres.

The guidelines outline a framework for registration and regulation of coaching institutes, lay out the baseline to run a coaching centre, and policy changes to safeguard students. Apart from stress and mental health, norms have been framed for fee structure and refund, methodology, timing, infrastructure, and false advertisements at large.

What Do The Guidelines Say?

Coaching institutes would have to register before a competent authority and ensure compliance with the conditions for registration. Registration of coaching institutes would also be renewed periodically.

Among the key registration conditions, coaching institutes have been barred from misleading students and parents by promising or guaranteeing them ranks or better marks. Coaching institutes have also been banned from enrolling students below the age of 16.

Moreover, the conditions explicitly state that centres should not publish any misleading advertisement that engages in “any claim, directly or indirectly, of quality of coaching or the facilities offered therein or the result procured by such coaching centre or the student who attended such class.”

Coaching centres will now need to have a website with data on all tutors, courses/curriculum, duration of completion, hostel facilities (if any), fees being charged, easy exit policy, fee refund policy, number of students who coached at the centre and the number of students who got admission to Higher Education Institutions.

The guidelines state that the fees have to be reasonable for courses or curricula offered by coaching centres. They also make a refund policy mandatory.

The coaching centre has to keep students better informed about the difficulty of exams and curriculum and to counsel students on alternative careers as well, according to the guidelines.

Paying heed to the mental well-being of students preparing for competitive exams, the government has decreed that coaching centres should conduct “periodic workshops and sensitization sessions regarding students’ mental health in collaboration with mental health professionals.” This is expected to stem the rising number of suicides by students.

If coaching centres violate the terms and conditions of registration or general terms, they will have to fork out fines and risk revocation of registration.

Though these guidelines have answered many grievances faced by students and parents, it has set too high a bar for coaching centres.

The Challenges Ahead

Experts say the guidelines will pave the way for a better ecosystem for students and mitigate malpractices of coaching centres.

“The government has done the right thing because, in the absence of these guidelines, the coaching institutes were benefiting immensely at the expense of the student’s future. These guidelines help education become more inclusive,” said Sulagna Mukhopadhyay, who teaches at Jadavpur University in Kolkata.

Some are wary of how the guidelines will be implemented as they rely on "honest" compliance by coaching institutes.

“These changes would definitely filter the choices of institutions for students and help orient them better. That said, considering the market that education has become, I hope the implementation of the guidelines is smooth and seen through,” said Bhavya Sinha, PhD scholar, Christ University (deemed to be), Delhi NCR.

Some wondered if the additional cost, as a result of more facilities imposed by the guidelines, will be passed onto students. “If career guidance counsellors (who charge exorbitantly) are brought in, students would have to bear the cost,” said Brinda Sarma, an English lecturer at Arya Nursing College.

Sarma said by the time students join coaching centres, they have already decided on what they want to pursue. Rather than coaching centres arranging counsellors, it is better to counsel students at an earlier stage to orient them better, she said.

On mental health and well-being, some psychologists are not so hopeful and see this move to be wishful thinking. “There’s been a long-standing custom or notion about academic expectations on children not just enforced many a time by their parents but reinforced as an iron-clad rule by coaching centres who see ranks and not a child’s holistic well-being. While the guidelines set a new precedent for holistic well-being, it is still too far-fetched of a dream,” said Ronika Sawhney, a counselling psychologist.

Well-established coaching institutes are likely to be more receptive to the changes brought about by the guidelines due to their customer base and bandwidth. New coaching centres may fail to cope, which could end up in a monopoly-like situation.

Rahul Sofat, a teacher at Air Force Golden Jubilee Institute School in Delhi, pointed out that smaller coaching centres or new entrants might face financial difficulty in meeting the norms as compared to established ones.

“To achieve results that were in mind while framing the guidelines, it is very important to have a curriculum that focuses on core competencies, application, and creative thinking,” Sofat added.