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PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION (PIL)

A few concerned citizens have got together to file a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court of India to request some degree of regulation and control over the multy – crore business being run in the garb of “Private Coaching Institutes/tuitions” all over India, in clear violation of the laws of the land.

The salient features of this PIL are as follows:

Ø Private Coaching institutions/tuitions running as a business of more than Rupees 35,000 crores per annum (according to a report released by Asian development bank and survey conducted by Pratichi trust, established by the noted Nobel economist, Amartya Sen).

Ø Hon’ble Delhi High Court has passed an order against commercial exploitation of talent and skill of minor students. The Hon’ble Court also said that the parents or guardians of a minor cannot part with the right of the minor to have a say about the use of his photograph for publicity by an institute run on commercial basis in the event of his succeeding in an entrance examination.

Ø The photograph of one student very often figures in the advertisement of many coaching institutes, each claiming that student to be their own student, even if the student has not attended a single class in that institute.

Ø According to a judgment by the Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, coaching institutes are not allowed to charge the fee for the whole duration of the course in advance by way of lump sum payment.

Ø Because of the hype created by the aggressive advertising by the coaching institutes the situation has become so bad that when a child realizes that he can’t make it to the IITs, the guilt of spending his/her father’s hard earned money on coaching classes can lead him/her to commit suicide. In fact, in Kota, which has emerged as the hub of these institutions, some 50 children/students committed suicide in 2011.

Ø A committee for higher education constituted by HRD ministry to study reasons for stress and suicide among students found that these coaching institutions are responsible for psychological stress among students.

Ø Andhra Pradesh education department has banned a coaching institute from holding their talent exams as these are against RTE Act. However, these talent exams are being held by these institutes regularly, unchecked. These coaching institutions try to get students as young as class 5th creating unnecessary pressure on young impressionable minds.

Ø Coaching institutions are also running integrated programs in school premises during school hours and encouraging school teachers to teach at coaching classes after school hours, which is against clear guidelines by the CBSE and RTE.

Ø These coaching institutions also hold various types of exams/tests inside school premises, which is also against CBSE guidelines.

Ø Successful students are given large amounts of money and scholarships and gifts like luxury cars in the guise of rewards to prevent them from speaking about the illegal and unfair trade practices of coaching institutions.

Ø Topper students have been blamed in the media for resorting to illegal means and collecting huge sums of money from the coaching institutes. Common men have reacted sharply by giving their comments and criticizing the so called unethical and illegal behavior of the toppers and their parents.

Ø Coaching institutes have placed numerous advertisements (often, multi-pages) in national daily newspapers, costing very large amounts, solely in order to induce the print media in their favour.

Ø Investigating agencies, like Police are also averse to take action against the coaching institutes, because of their money power.

Ø The coaching institutes have also tried to damage the reputation of IIT’s in some advertisements and also advertise themselves as being “trusted” by director, deans and professors at IIT’s.

Ø Coaching institutes have been accused in the past by the media investigators for question paper leak incidents of IIT-JEE and AIEEE.

Ø The Supreme Court of India imposes total prohibition on school teachers to engage in private tuition. But the practice is rampant. The Govt. has been completely silent on this matter so far.

Ø It has been stated by a number of noted educationalists of the country that providing sustained “private coaching” to children from a young age, as against formal class room teaching not only has an undesirable impact on the minds and personality of the children but also negates the very purpose of the educational system, as a whole.

Ø It has been enshrined in our constitution, and emphasized by the Supreme Court that educational institutions cannot be run with a “profit motive”. However, in blatant violation of the law, these coaching institutions continue to function as “business houses” with the sole aim of profit making. In fact the profitability of these institutes is more than 500% in many cases.

Ø There have been a very large number of recorded cases where students have prepared themselves for the entrance examinations on their own without taking any coaching. In fact the Director of IIT (Kanpur) and IIT (Mumbai) have stated in separate interviews that the percentage of student who enter the IIT’s without taking any help from these coaching classes is as high as 40% to 50%.

Ø The coaching institutes get “letters of thanks” written by toppers in IIT-JEE by hook or by crook, and use these in misleading advertisements. A look at these so called letters/testimonials of thanks will show that these letters have been drafted by the coaching classes, and simply penned by the topper students.

Ø The malaise of lure of high salaries and poaching of teachers was very succinctly depicted some years ago very truthfully in a popular Bollywood film “Aarakshan”. The actual position on the ground is no different from that depicted in this film, where skilled tutors are “bought” at exorbitant prices, with little or no consideration to continuation of studies for the students.

Ø In complete contrast to the “business” of the coaching institutes, a training centre named Super 30 in Patna takes only 30 students, and gives preference to poor but meritorious students. This organization has an envious record that in most years all the 30 students are successful in IIT-JEE. This contrasts sharply with the results of these numerous high-profile private coaching institutes who make big claims of being highly reputed, result oriented, with their highly paid teachers. The lakhs of rupees that they take as fees from students are just to fill their pockets and nothing else. More than 90% of the students in these coaching institutes are not able to clear IIT-JEE, most are not able to even clear the minimum cut offs set by the IIT-JEE.

Ø Most of the money collected from students as fees is spent by the coaching institutes on advertising instead of spending it on enhancement of teaching facilities.

NOTE: Some of the websites used for making of the PIL are:

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/coaching-institutes-claim-top-rankers-as-their--success-stories-/796036/0

http://164.100.72.12/ncdrcrep/judgement/80FIITJEE%20Ltd.%20Vs%20Dr.%20Minathi%20Rath.htm

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-10-21/india/28084535_1_coaching-class-iitian-s-pace-jee

http://gulzar05.blogspot.in/2011/02/market-for-trading-iit-jee-toppers.html

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-06-01/hyderabad/29607921_1_iit-jee-rank-holders-educational-institutions

http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Choosing-a-Coaching-Class-review-tromtslsq

http://kalvimalar.dinamalar.com/news-details.asp?cat=1&id=4714

http://dcubed.dilipdsouza.com/2008/06/mine-mine.html

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-02-20/news/28615129_1_coaching-classes-iit-coaching-iitians-pace

http://www.consumercourt.in/product-services/73375-fiitjee-not-giving-me-my-sincerity-fund.html

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-09-22/hyderabad/34021543_1_talent-test-fiitjee-school-education