Taking cognisance of coaching centers charging exorbitant fees from students, promoting unhealthy competition and stress among students, rise in student suicides and other malpractices, a set of new guidelines were released by the Education Ministry.
Through the guidelines, the ministry aims to regulate the coaching centers by way of an appropriate legal framework. The rules laid down propose to act heavily on the coaching institutes if found in violation.
Also Read: How parents, students and coaching institutes reacted to new guidelines issued by the Education Ministry
Registration of Coaching Centers
As per the proposed guidelines, individuals who are interested in imparting coaching or establishing, running, managing or maintaining a coaching center, will now have to register the center as per the guidelines.
For coaching centers having multiple branches, each of the branches would be considered as a separate coaching center which would need a separate application for its registration.
The validity of the registration according to the new rules will be decided by the appropriate government and has not been fixed. “The validity of the registration of coaching centers could have been mentioned in the guidelines. A quantitative mechanism to assess the facilities and quality of the institutions is essential to ensure the objectivity and transparency of the registration process,” says Dr V V George Kutty, Principal of Civil Service Institute, Pala.
Also Read: Key reasons why centre wants to regulate the coaching industry in India
Conditions to obtain registration for coaching institutes
The guidelines lay down certain conditions for approval. Failing to clear the conditions would cost heavily for the institutes.
(1) Coaching centers will now have to ensure that the tutors have a minimum qualification of graduation and will also have to put up the updated details of the faculty, fees charged from students, etc on their dedicated website. In addition, coaching centers will also have to ensure that the tutors or persons who have been convicted for any offence involving moral turpitude are not hired.
(2) Making misleading promises/advertisements to attract students and parents to enroll and be a part of the institute is strictly prohibited and will be crucial to revoke/not granting registration.
(3) Students below 16 years of age are now not allowed to enroll in the coaching institutes. This is proposed to restrict the coaching institutes that start preparing students from a very young age for competitive exams.
(4) Ensuring that the institutes provide the minimum infrastructural facilities to the students enrolled, the guidelines propose to not allow registration if it has less than the minimum space requirement per student.
(5) Need to ensure the centers have counselling system as per the requirement of the guidelines.
“Although there are few positive points like fee regulation, misleading results in the newly established ‘Guidelines for Registration and Regulation of Coaching Centre 2024’ center mandate, I believe this regulation is Dictatorial and draconian natured and is a step to hide the failure of Government school and college education system where majority students are not even able to solve simple science numericals because government resources had not covered exam questions qualitatively. Almost all toppers in competitive exams are from coaching centers,” said Kunal Singh who runs a city-based coaching center in Chandigarh.
Penalty
In case of violation of any of the terms and conditions of registration or general conditions as laid down in the guidelines, the coaching center will have to cough up penalties as follows:
(i) ₹25,000/- for the first offence
(ii) Rs. 1,00,000/- for the second offence
(iii) revocation of registration for a subsequent offence
“With a regulatory framework in place, these guidelines will set a benchmark for quality education with a commitment to safeguarding students’ interests and mental health. The emphasis on integrated well-being covering the entire institutional community, career guidance, psychological counseling demonstrates a shift toward nurturing mental well-being over mere academic success,” said Neeraj Kumar, Founder & CEO, PeakMind.
