Sreeni as part of the discussion panel on DD News Charcha Mein – Coaching classes : A parallel education system – A necessary evil? The panel included former VC DU Prof Deepak Pental, Former Director NCERT Prof J S Rajput, Former Chairman UPSC Lt. Gen Surinder Nath, Prof Rizwan Qaisar of Jamia Milia Islamia and Mr Ulhas Vairagkar of TIME, Padma Shree Anil Bordia, eminent educationist and civil servant from Jaipur and Mr. Anand Kumar of Super 30, IIT coaching from Patna. Charcha anchor was Neelam Sharma

I summarize the ‘Charcha mein’ discussions broadly. I managed to scribble each ones sayings. Pardon me if I could not express it as much as they did or if some aberrations creeps in –

Neelam Sharma –
The Coaching classes seem to have become a parallel education system. It was looked down upon a couple of decades ago. Today it has become integral to just the thought of education. Students skip classes to attend coaching. Why?

Ulhas –
Fewer colleges, and the competition has become so stiff. Look at DU happenings on admissions at 100% cut off. Then coming to best of the institutions, only way to select is through competition, and coaching institutions help the aspirants to excel in there which the colleges are not able to do. It is a question of demand and supply that is driving the students to go to the coaching institutions to be one among the best.

Sreeni –
Unfortunately in our country it has become competition system, where is the education system. Inspite of NCF 2005 implemented to help learning, the schools are continuing to conduct exams every week. So only marks have come to be the important factor, neglecting the learning. Competitive exams test the concepts against time. Coaching institutions are able to help them get clarity in the concepts and also apply them to excel in such competitive scenario. So it is not just about demand and supply, but also the quality of learning.

Prof Pental –
Coaching has become a distortion in education system. It is stroking hyper competition. Perhaps it is bringing uniformity in the competition, may be helping the weak. Our institutions have to review the gap between what is being taught in the classrooms and what is being sought for in the competitive exams, or even the other way around. why not we orient our school systems help the students.

Lt. Gen Surinder Nath –
At UPSC we always looked at the overall personality and leadership potential. In schools we need to work on these. How can we help the students with only one teacher with a class of 60 and 80. Coaching is not bad. It has been helping aspirants to gain that all round personality, build confidence. Though my son did not need it going to IIT and IIM, but I see there is a need for many to gain the edge.

Prof J S Rajput –
When I was in college, coaching did not exist or even later it was shunned. But now when we look at the education system, we are not getting quality teachers into the system. We are short of about seven lakh teachers, a recent RTI revealed. I do not agree that coaching stokes learning, it is all about drilling. We need to identify real talent and nurture. The market forces are pushing every one to head there. The real need is the focus on our education system right from Elementary schools.

Prof Rizwan Qaiser –
There are three levels of coaching : IIT & Medical – knowledge intensive; Civil cervices – Broad perspective; Bank PO – aptitude based; There is a great disconnect between the needs of a competition, whether for a job or analytical skills they demand and the mainstream graduation curriculum. University syllabus focuses on creating scholars while the coaching focuses on techniques to solve the problems that is the need of the competition.

Prof Anil Bordia –
The standards in the education system has fallen drastically. Prof Yashpal committee report on Higher education talks about it. We are not implementing the NCF 2005. We need to have an ANNA effect on Education reforms.

Anand Kumar-
We have talent across hidden all over. There is a gap between what is being taught in schools and colleges and what the entrance tests demand of them. Only way is to help them bridge the gap, how else can we help the talent reach those portals?

Audience –

– Creamy layers of our population does not opt for teaching. only remains get in there, so what happens to education system
– You will see any career counselors and facilitators who have any knowledge of careers in schools and colleges to go to
– Look at GATE and Civil services what they test is way beyond what is in our syllabus in colleges

Winding up : Neelam – Is there a need to bring regulation into the coaching industry to make it responsible and deliver.

Ulhas –
Regulation and rules have not contributed to any. We have seen the license raaj and we are seeing many scams. Look at the India cricket team. We did not hear of any Coach a decade ago and today we see chief coach, batting, bowling and fielding coaches. Why? The competition has become immense and we cannot run away from it.

Sreeni –
We need to pull up the levels in our mainstream education system. We recruit people from IITs and IIMs to teach not only in coaching but also into our school system. Sixth pay commission has made teaching a little more acceptable. We need to recruit quality. Our endeavour should be to make our education system more learning centric and excite children. Why not bridge the gap in the school. Automatically everything else will fall in place.

Market forces are the decision makers. If I look at the coaching industry, we had 6-8 big players now reduced to 2-3. So the quality institutions will excel, we should not worry about it.

Mr Pental-
How can I make the things better in our system. How can I create pride in the institutional system. Bridge the syllabus. Bring reforms that have been shared in the Knowledge commission and Prof Yashpal’s report.

Lt. Gen Surinder Nath –
There are many who go to the best institutions without coaching, but majority do need it. Never regulations have ever helped.

Prof Rajput –
I have been in education space for 21 years and in HRD min for five years. I know for sure the average talent in college is better than those in Coaching institution. We need to think how to make them contribute to the larger cause.

Prof Anil Bordia –
We need to stop the commercialization of education. This can happen only when our mainstream education system – schools and colleges – see reforms.

Anand Kumar-
As long as we do not deliver what to be delivered in schools, we have no other choice.