I hardly accept pamphlets, but once I do, I give it its due with a thorough glance. Having shifted to a not so metropolitan town, I wasn’t expecting pamphlets being distributed at the entrance of a retail store. Out of inquisitiveness as I opened the envelope, a neat form popped out. Some institute called Excellency was opening its centre in Jaipur after having proved its mettle in IIT-JEE coaching in Delhi, Indore, Pune and Mumbai. Course fee was stated as just Rs. 90, 000 for a one year course (XII standard) and 1.25 lakh for two year course (XI standard). Also, early enrollments get 10% off as scholarship. If you do not choose to opt for a regular class you can join their Test Series or Sunday classes. As a mark of testimony, the envelope carried mug shots of five- six youngsters crediting them for making it to top 50 and strongly recommending their preparatory coaching.  

Excellency may be one of the thousands of coaching institutes having mushroomed in the past decade for coaching in IIT-JEE. Most of them charging a fortune with the guidance of OK to mediocre faculty and sometimes even making claims of assistance from the IIT faculties. As education becomes a business, the concept of study circles, self-tutoring and sharing knowledge for free remain highly distorted terms. With absolutely no tab on their fee structure to no inspections of their malpractices, the IIT-JEE coaching industry thrives luring parents and engineering aspirants into a vicious non delivering format of training system.

It came as a shock to many a diligent academician when SUPER 30, the Patna based coaching institute which caters to the underprivileged bright students who cannot pay hefty fees but aspire to get into the prestigious IITs,  decided to close down when another institute claimed their successful students as its (The Telegraph, June-2007). Anand Kumar and Abhayanand, the brains behind the noble idea expressed that they felt frustrated at “bogus” coaching centres “buying off” and poaching on their students to advertise their own institutes. “Super 30 is closed for ever. We are poor and have no wherewithal to check criminals poaching our students,” said Kumar.  However, the institute resumed again on the grounds of the “Cause” that they are pursuing, revealed Anupam Kumar, from 2005 batch of SUPER 30 and currently in Indian School of Mines University-Dhanbad.

A Chennai based engineer, Kamlakar Rao, shares a similar story. He revealed how by giving the free test series an IIT coaching institute used his name on clearing the exam to authenticate their capability. He also draws attention to the fact that how some of these have been successful in retaining IIT students by way of handsome salaries to teach in their institutes.

Intense competition among coaching centres has led to buying successful IIT entrants to coach the young aspirants, give them “funda” of success or endorse the institute. “I unknowingly misguided one IIT aspirant under the influence of the owner of IITians Foundation classes. I was at the office to collect my cheque when the founder- Director asked me to talk to a parent and convince him to join the school and course suggested by him. I didn't understand much at that time and did as he told me. Later I realized that he used the benefit of me being an IITian and misguided the parent,” recollects Tarun Gupta, an IIT-B pass out and currently based in Mumbai. What The latest news is that the institute has allegedly been closed down. The reason is, however, unknown.

Kota, one of the most thriving grounds for IIT-JEE coaching is home to Bansal Coaching classes. Having earned a reputation over years, the center is known to conduct a rigorous entrance test even for admission in the center. The business of coaching is going so lucrative that most of them jumped to other cities in Rajasthan. What is amusing is how most institutes based in Kota had tie-ups with schools regarding attendance issues until government intervened and made inspections over attendance mandatory.  

“IITs have a brand name and, as an educational institute, a moral responsibility. Although the business of coaching is certainly not going to disappear anytime soon, but certain governmental checks and initiatives by students and aspirants to let no such case get away without societal and legal intervention would be an immense step towards change,” suggests Vishal Kankani who is credited to have garnered a massive drive for intervention against such malpractices. While taking a legal perspective, “A simple complain to the consumer court would justify this cause for only then some action can be taken,” reflects Advocate Virendra Singh.