Carrying forward our campaign to bring forth the ills riddling the academic scenario of the city, today we focus on the unholy nexus between coaching centres on the one hand and private schools and junior colleges on the other. Several junior colleges in the city have a tie-up where preference is given not to merit but to students’ enrollment in particular coaching institutes.
Our investigations have revealed that colleges instead of temples of learning have become the B-team of cash-rich coaching institutes by becoming their admission gateways. It is not funny that students are forced into taking admissions into colleges for Std XI even when they don’t want to. Undeserving colleges get a full house every year. This is solely because they have joined hands with the coaching institutes for a share in their profit pie.
The benefit of this nexus is surely not to the students. Shockingly, the education department has turned its back towards the issue. The apathy of the education department has further encouraged these institutes to continue this unholy liaison. Admissions mostly depend upon the interest of student and their parents.
There are colleges which admit students wanting to prepare exclusively for the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) while there are others who are open for students wanting to prepare for both engineering and medical entrance examinations.
Normally fees of such colleges are very less. They charge around Rs 500 to Rs 1500 for admission to Std XI. But when a student is referred to them by a coaching institute, the admission fee increases manifold. It can then be anywhere from Rs 25000 to Rs 40000 per student. Shamelessly, the receipt given for the admission however displays the normal fee of Rs. 500/Rs 1500.
This gives rise to another illegal circus. Only the normal fee can be paid through cheque, the remainder has to be compulsorily paid by cash. Neither is a receipt given nor do parents ask for one as the junior colleges assure to give special treatment to their wards. It is learnt that students who approach and take admissions through coaching centres are allowed to be absent from class. This is the ‘special treatment.’ This special permission is granted so that they can attend the said coaching institute. The attendance register is manipulated to show their presence and hence ground is prepared for for them to fulfill the requirements for appearance to the annual examination as per the Board’s rules.
Such students are also known to get better marks in practical exams and they are free from the burden of submitting projects. Taking serious note of this issue, the State government has directed all the schools to set up bio-metric machines for attendance of students. The directive was passed two years back and was meant to be implemented in junior colleges offering science stream. However, the education department did not take the order seriously and at present there is no information available on how many junior colleges have actually installed bio-metric equipment for attendance.
Deputy Director of Education is mainly responsible for effective implementation of the State government’s directives. It is, however, obvious that the office of the deputy director is least interested in inspecting the junior colleges to check whether the bio-metric apparatus is in place. Last year, two colleges were inspected, but the department did not provide any detail about whether these colleges had bio-metric attendance system and if not, what action was taken against them.
It is evident from the apathy of the education department that it is least interested in curbing the coaching institutes who are blatantly flouting the norms and putting the career of students at stake. Once again it raises the doubt that the nexus is between not only just junior colleges and coaching centres but also involves a third angle- the education department. Why else would it turn a blind eye to this exploitation of students?
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