Want to rise? Pay and catch my ?coach?!

Sir, can you please explain me this question? Beta! Yes. But, not here. Meet me at my coaching centre! DID YOU get the full essence of the above conversation? Perhaps not. But it brings us face to face with a harsh reality. He teaches at school. But he wants the students to pay and attend his coaching centre.

Sir, can you please explain me this question?
Beta! Yes. But, not here. Meet me at my coaching centre!

HT Image

DID YOU get the full essence of the above conversation? Perhaps not. But it brings us face to face with a harsh reality. He teaches at school. But he wants the students to pay and attend his coaching centre.

Welcome to circa 2006! No longer are the jobs done for honour. Everyone wants to earn a quick buck. Moolah rules. And teachers are no exception.

They want to earn at school and home. And that’s why they start private coaching centres.

And that’s not all. It becomes profitable for the teachers to maintain a low standard in school so that the parallel system of tuitions survives.

“The teachers teach in such a manner so that students are forced to join their coaching centre. They don’t teach properly at school. We are left with no other option, but go the way the teacher wants,” says Rohit Maewall, class XII passout from a major school.

The trend is gradually increasing. Many teachers coerce the students to join their coaching, stating it as the only way of securing good marks. Himank Sharma says, “I was shocked when my teacher asked me to come to his home for tuitions. He told me I would get proper attention at the coaching. And he won’t answer any questions properly at school.”

In some schools, teachers are not competent enough to teach properly. “My teacher failed to properly explain any topics. Though he did not ask me to join any coaching, but I had to do so because I didn’t have any other options,” says Manik Dua. Some students take tuitions from their schoolteachers just for the sake of maintaining good relations with their teachers and get some special favours in exams. This is why many students are ignoring schools to attend private coaching. Doesn’t it mean an extra financial burden? “Yes, it does. But, what to do?” argues Rohit.

“It is a fact that private coaching classes, which were once meant to supplement the classroom teaching, have now become a necessary evil. And this is not restricted to Class XII. It holds true for Class X and Class XI and even for graduation courses also,” says a student’s father V K Sinha.

Some teachers entrap students in a slightly different manner. They lure students to take coaching to do better in competitive exams.

“In fact, many school teachers don’t have the required skills to teach for competitions. My son enrolled with the coaching centre of his schoolteacher to prepare for competitive exams. But within one month he realised he was just revising the school syllabus,” says Anjali Gupta, a mother.

You might think that only those teachers run coaching centres who do not get a proper salary. “No, absolutely not! Even teachers who get a decent salary are drawn into the coaching business for additional income,” says Anubhav, a student-turned-teacher.