Textbook definition of coaching is to get support in achieving a targeted personal or professional goal. More nuanced usage of this term is the process of giving a student extra teaching in a particular subject. Cultural moorings and history and current availability of types and competition for jobs in India have made coaching for few available jobs a booming industry in itself. A coaching culture of this kind in India is evidently growing every year, which seems to have been working inversely proportional to the vacancy figures being made available due to perverse incentives to tutors.
The problems of the students compound manifold as the promises and priorities of the majority of the coaching classes are misplaced since they hardly factor in the situations students face or are from. Their sole objective is to reap rich benefits by promising skies to the credulous parents and students. The fact also remains that there could be more than 100 times aspirants than the vacancies and all harbour the same dream of cracking a particular exam with all possible resources to their disposal, which without doubt create psychological, social and economic upheavals, resulting in violence and other ugly scenes in some parts of the country.
There is little denying the fact that a right kind of coaching proves helpful for especially the students coming from rural and semi-urban areas who are normally not aware or well-aware of the latest trends and practices of how to prepare for various exams. For example, a coaching is supposed to be giving them the right guidance, personalization of studies, new learning styles, tips for getting a competitive advantages, the proper utilization of time and routine, selection of subjects, getting to cover up specific chapters/subjects/topics among others. However the cons always overwhelm the pros. The cons also constitute additional expenditure on education by the poor middle class on coaching class which is rising rapidly, extra homework burden on students which causes physical and psychological stress to them and their families, focus on rote learning and curriculum being different from school academic structure among others.
The trend of having a parallel practice and guidance now seems to start right after a child completes his or her Kindergarten. The idea of having a coaching has become a trend today with parents too being unavailable for their part of impartations to children, and instead substituting it with coaching institutes. This has encouraged coaching institutes over last two decades to upgrade themselves with multiplied service packages, big promises with no guarantee, study material entrapment and tricky terms and conditions. This pressurises both types of students – those who take coachings, feel the pressure of clearing exams and the pressure increases manifold with more and more attempts and parents staring at them; and those who do not pursue coachings struggle with pressure of incompetence and fear of failure.
The situation can better be understood by the numbers of employees in central and state government services. The Union Budget for 2022-23 estimated the strength of central government employees at 34.65 lakh. If we add around 14 lakh armed forces, the number reaches to around 47 lakh employees. According to the report of the 7th Pay Commission, the total sanctioned strength of the central government was around 38.9 lakh in 2014. The central government employs around 8.5% of organised workforce with armed forces being the biggest employer. The military constitutes around 30% of the central workforce, followed by railways with around 28% share in central employees. Even among central government jobs the majority of government employees belong to group C with a share of 88.7%, followed by group B with 8.5% share and group A with just 2.8% of the share. While, state governments employ around one crore people. The average recruitment in the central government between 2006 and 2014, was a little over one lakh a year. But the number of youth preparing for government jobs both central and states, stands at several millions. The largest employer armed forces recruit around 60 thousands a year and each year, those knocking the job market stand at around 1.2 Crores. Solution to this is employment in stricter sense of being engaged in productive work, not necessarily a job. Agnipath is one marvellous program which is bound to transform the lives of the selected Agniveers, whether they continue in the job or step out and become an entrepreneur.
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