JAMMU: For how long will we continue to see young lives being lost five kilometres away from the Parliament where elected lawmakers formulate policies to steer this great nation? For how long will we continue to read about teenagers committing suicide by hanging from ceiling fans in a city where air is filled with more pressure than oxygen? For how long will we allow lakhs of students destroying the prime of their youth chasing a made-up dream, far disconnected from the reality? And for how long will the frustration and disappointment fill the lives of these young boys and girls and their families as they end up skill-less and hopeless when their dreams get shattered?
These are the questions that fill my thoughts and more often than not, keep me up all night, in succession, as I see the current state of education in our country, which is heavily infected by a virus called Coaching Institutions, which to me is far more dangerous than the pandemic we all witnessed at the beginning of this decade. As I sit down to pen this piece, I hope my thoughts resonate with my readers—young and old alike– who will take this nation to greater heights, together.
The recent deaths of three young civil services aspirants in Delhi adds to the long list of the exploitation that students have been facing over the decades across the country. It is only due to involvement of two rival political parties that the incident has gained traction and is widely reported by the media in the national capital.
This takes nothing away from the fact the authorities and the government made lapses and must be made accountable. As we speak, the action has been initiated against some of the accused and accountability is expected to be fixed against some more in the next few days.
However, this is more about the core of the problem and sits there on their princely thrones are coaching institutions, the number of whom has grown exponentially in recent times, due to a number of reasons.
Ever since the commercialisation of the education sector in India, gradually coaching centres have established themselves as a Mafia. What that has resulted in, is for all of us to see. If you observe keenly, what the coaching centres are doing is against the very basic foundation of New Education Policy, which focusses more on the development of a student than curriculum and examination.
Through my frequent writings, I have raised the issue of the coaching institutions which are leading the degradation of a student’s education, personal and moral foundation, contrary to what the education system and policies envisage.
How can we forget about what is happening in Kota, which admits students in bulk to manufacture engineers and doctors out of them, irrespective of their individual aptitude?
How can we forget about what happened recently in the aftermath of the NEET-UG episode, where coaching centres even managed to provoke a larger section of students, influencing them to further their sinister agendas and ulterior and selfish motives?
How can we forget that these coaching centres colluded with certain sections of the media to make the students a soft target, in those sensitive circumstances, even when the matter was sub-judice?
It is time for all of us—civil society and the authorities alike—to pause for a while and think about why 13 lakh boys and girls sit for the civil services exam, for one thousand odd vacancies. With ‘celebrity teachers’ and ‘influencer teachers’ spending more time on social media than classrooms, the coaching institutions laugh their way to the banks, but at the cost of the lives of lakhs of young boys and girls, who are left without any skill as their dreams of becoming ‘Sarkari Babu’ shatter after losing several precious years which could have been used to acquire a relevant skill or a degree or two in an area of their interest.
The money-minting by these ‘Con-Gods’ in the clothing of teachers in pursuit of their ulterior, corrupt practices has to be stopped immediately
I strongly believe it is time that the government puts a blanket ban on this mafia, and all private coaching for all entrance exams for higher education and all exams conducted for various jobs by the government.
I would appreciate the views of my readers on this at [email protected].
‘Timeline of Delhi Murders’
Three civil services aspirants died after the basement of building housing a coaching centre- Rau’s IAS Study Circle- was flooded following heavy rain in central Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar area on the evening of July 27, leading to massive protests by students. The deceased were identified as Tanya Soni, a resident of Telangana, Navin Dalvin, a resident of Kerala and Shreya Yadav, a resident of UP, who had come from different parts of the country and had enrolled themselves in this coaching centre.
On July 28, opposition parties termed the deaths as “murder” and the incident a “man-made disaster”, as they attacked the AAP-led Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and government over the tragedy, while AAP and BJP shifted blame onto each other. By the evening, officials listed the absence of drainage system and safety measures, and use of basement for commercial activities in violation of norms as the reasons for the deaths, and arrested the owner and the coordinator of the coaching centre, booking them for culpable homicide and other charges. A scuffle erupted between the students and police, after which a few protesters were detained and taken away in a bus.
On July 29, the incident resonated in Parliament with vice-president and Rajya Sabha Jagdeep Dhankhar dubbing the culture of coaching centres as a “gas chamber”, while in Lok Sabha, members cutting across party lines demanded stern action against those responsible for negligence resulting in the deaths. MHA constituted a high-level committee, headed by an Additional Secretary, to probe the deaths which was asked to submit its report in 30 days, while five accused including four co-owners of the basement and the driver of a car, were sent to judicial custody for 14 days.
On July 30, the NHRC issued notices to the Delhi government, city police chief and municipal commissioner and sought detailed report in two weeks, with the MCD sealing 29 basements of coaching institutes for allegedly operating in violation of the building by-laws. The students begin indefinite hunger strike.
On July 31, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday lambasted the authorities, saying human lives are costly and should not be lost due to some negligence as tragedies are waiting to happen. Highlighting the need to do away with the “freebies culture” where no taxes or water and electricity bills are being collected, the high court said when civic authorities do not have money to pay salaries, how will they upgrade the infrastructure which is a century old. After shifting the blame on each other for days, the AAP government promised a new law to regulate these establishments and Lt Governor VK Saxena in a parallel move ordered setting up of a panel to frame guidelines for them, setting the stage for another round of tussle.
On August 1, the Civil services aspirants’ protest entered the fifth day while a local court allowed the second bail plea of the SUV driver after the Delhi Police told the court that they have decided to drop harsher charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against him.
