The Center announced on Thursday that private coaching centers were not allowed to accept students younger than 16 and directed them to stop running deceptive ads that promised high scores and ranks.
The education ministry’s comprehensive guidelines mandated that for-profit coaching centers charge tuition that is reasonable and fair, failing which they risk a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh or having their registration revoked.
Why did the government release new guidelines for coaching facilities?
This comes in the wake of an increase in student suicides in Kota, Rajasthan, and other places, which are attributed to a mental health epidemic brought on by stress from schoolwork and other related issues.
Remarkably, in 2023, 26 students committed suicide in Kota, India’s top coaching center, which was home to over 225,000 JEE and NEET candidates. In Kota, fifteen students committed suicide in 2022.
According to the most recent annual report from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 13,044 students committed suicide in India in 2022. The numbers were ascribed, among other things, by mental health specialists to peer pressure, academic stress, and a lack of resources.
The ministry’s guidelines are a first step in managing the unchecked expansion of private coaching centers and creating a legal framework.
New requirements for teachers and students to be admitted
The ministry’s guidelines state that coaching centers are not allowed to hire tutors who have less education than a bachelor’s degree. Although these institutions do not admit students under the age of sixteen, the guidelines also state that students can only be enrolled following their secondary school examination.
