DNA Special: How is coaching industry growing rapidly in India?

In today's show, we will talk about tuitions and coaching centres. The basis of our analysis is a deal between the largest online education company BYJU'S and Aakash Educational Institute, under which BYJU'S has bought the Akash Institute for one billion dollars. This price is more than the total net worth of E-commerce companies like Nykaa and Lenskart.

In a country that has 1.5 million government and private schools, one thousand universities and more than 33 thousand playschools, one private coaching company has become so big that it has outpaced many other big companies. So, today it is important to understand how this tuition industry has become so vast in India.

When India got independence in the year 1947, the education system in our country was very weak. Although changes started gradually, till the 90s there was only one center of education and that was the school. At that time, the students completed their homework after returning home from school. And children who used to take help from someone or take coaching from someone, then it was not considered good in the society.

Teachers giving tuition also did not get that much respect in society. Such people were called businessmen, not teachers at that time because they used to earn money from parents of children by giving private coaching. But today, the picture has changed. Today, a system of tuition parallel to the school education system has arisen.

Today, when you send your children to school, you ask them to reach home on time because they have to go to tuition afterward.

According to a study, children in India start taking tuitions from the age of 4. They are told that if they do not take tutions, they will be left behind by other children.

After 8th grade, children start taking tuition for different subjects. The average monthly fee for teaching a subject in India is Rs 400. And in many cases it is more than 1 thousand rupees.

That is, you first pay the school fees, then the tuition fees and in this way you spend 12 percent of your total earnings on the education of your children. And when the children complete school and go to enroll in a good medical and engineering college, they are also taught to take coaching for this.

Apart from this, coaching is also taken to become IAS and IPS. And the bitter truth is that today, even if you want a job of Clerk in any government department, then also you will have to take tuition to pass the exam.

Tuition studies have become more powerful than studies in schools and colleges and this power is like a machine for printing notes for many companies.

One out of every four children in India is dependent on tuition more than their school. About 7 crore children take private tuitions in our country.

A child spends 9 hours a week taking tuition classes. In simple words, this time is equivalent to staying in school for one and a half days, according to India Human Development Survey.

West Bengal tops the state in India where children take the highest private tuition. 89 percent of students from classes 9 to 12 take tuition in the state.

However, the situation in other states is also not very good. The number of students who take tuition is 87 percent in Tripura, 67.2 percent in Bihar, 63.4 percent in Odisha and 54.7 percent in Manipur.

In tuitions, every child is given attention and in return, good money is also taken from them. And parents also gladly bear these expenses to provide good education to their children.

In India, 30 children should be taught in a class in schools but on average 60 children are taught. That is, a teacher in a class teaches 60 children at a time. In such a situation, most of the children feel that they could not understand anything and their doubts were not clear. And that's why they get tuition. Because tuition promises to pay good attention to the education of every child.

However, there is another reason for this and that is shortage of teachers in schools.

In September 2020, it was informed in the Lok Sabha that 17 percent of the posts of teachers are lying vacant in government schools in India. These numbers are 10 lakh 6 thousand.

Today, the tuition industry in our country is worth 25 thousand crores annually. And it has increased by 35 percent in the last 5 years.

If a student after the 12th class wants to prepare for the entrance examination of Medical or Engineering, then he has to spend about one and a half lakh rupees annually. And if he prepares for it by studying in a coaching center for two years, then his expenditure goes above Rs 3 lakh.

The cost of private education in India is so high that many families become bankrupt. And nothing could be worse for our country than this.

The reality is that today most people in our country have accepted tuition as the only solution to get a good education.

However, it is not that coaching culture is becoming popular only in India.

According to the Global Education Census, 70 percent of students in Japan, 83 percent in Malaysia and 92.8 percent in South Korea, also take help of private tuitions. This means that the private tuition industry has taken a big shape not only in India but in many countries. And by the year 2022, it will reach 227 billion dollars.