06/10/2021
Coaching centres come under Supreme Court scanner
Coaching centres for professional courses, which have mushroomed across the country and are notorious for harassing students over fees and issuing misleading advertisements about their achievements that create false hope and even lead to su***des amongst students, have come under the scanner of the Supreme Court.
Shockingly, the Human Resource Development Ministry, in an affidavit filed in the apex court in
connection with a PIL on the issue, has admitted to su***des by students enrolled at coaching centres. However, it washed its hands of the matter, saying it is the responsibility of states to act against errant institutes. "Human Resource Development Ministry is only responsible for coordination and determination of standards in institutions for higher education and research, scientific and technical institutions.
There have been instances of
su***des committed by students, including of premier educational institutions like IITs and NITs and the reasons as per fact finding and inquiry committees have been depression, peer pressure and emotional. Concerned state's law and order authority has to take action against the coaching centre," said the affidavit filed by Gopal Krishna, a senior HRD ministry official.
He said the report of a central task force had recommended a counselling centre in each
institute but most centres have not implemented this measure. The alarming situation, which raises serious questions about the manner of functioning of a large number of coaching centres that have mushroomed across the country, was brought to the notice of the apex court through the PIL filed by the Students Federation of India (SFI), the students' wing of the CPI-M.
"Because of the hype created by the aggressive advertising by the coaching institutes, a situation
has arisen where when a child realizes that he can't make it to the attempted medical or engineering course, the guilt of spending his/her father's hard-earned money on coaching classes is leading him/her to commit su***de," the PIL said. Quoting a report by credit rating agency Crisis.
