Opinion: How coaching institutes are responsible for deteriorating education quality of top level aspirants – ET Government

By Ashwani Kumar

I am really surprised to see everyone opposing coaching Institutes indiscriminately from left to right. Last month one person who had been part of the UPSC interview board for Personality Test said that coaching institutes have spoiled the quality of officers by spoon feeding them ready made answers curtailing the thought process of the candidates where undeserving candidates get selected hampering the quality of services.

The coaching institutes are accused to promote rote learning which is very bad. The main targets of this vocal attacks are coaching institutes for IITs, UPSC, Medical, etc.

I don’t understand that whether it is the coaching institutes which need to be blamed or the academicians or the testing authorities who set up question papers. Isn’t this the inability of the people unable to set up a desired question paper which can test a deserving student fulfilling required parameters.

One question difficult for me to understand is that for a student who has absolutely no idea of how to prepare or qualify an exam, what are the choices left to the student. I am not considering rural students only as the urban students also face similar challenges. Those candidates/students who are not blessed with well-educated parents, family members, relatives, well-wishers etc. what should they do? What are the options left for them? Should they sit at home groping for the best methodology and hoping that they would have dreams where complex questions and innovative ideas would be revealed especially in cutthroat competitive exams where every second matter, every strategy matters, every idea matters, every concept matters.

Today although information is available on everything, is it easy to filter quality information where everything is becoming so complex that you get more confused as you keep on searching more information.

Are the candidates stopping the institute or the examination authorities to design a question paper with questions which are tough to attempt. If the examination conducting authorities have full freedom to use the best available resources to set question papers to test the abilities of the students then why it is a matter of concern when such freedom to learn and prepare is being exercised by the student.

In Fact these are the coaching Institutes only which are helping in creating a level playing field by helping students making them aware of the skills and qualities being tested by the exam. If you see very smart people fail and very mediocre people rise like anything. Hard work, sincerity and devotion makes you successful.

In fact a student should be given full autonomy and freedom to decide the way of preparation and the testing authorities should do their best to design a question paper which achieves their objectives.

When I was studying Electrical Engineering at IIT Madras we had many “Open Books” exam where you had the full liberty to use any resource you can think of. In fact we were given the question papers one week before the exam which we had to solve in the exam. There was no question paper provided in the exam and you could take any material you like including Books, Calculators, Computer etc to aid you in the exam.

We are in fact focused on a very wrong debate where our focus should be how to develop an ecosystem or learning environment where there is no cost on learning, free access to all resources of Education without any price tag, only then it will boost creativity, innovativeness, enhance cognitive abilities with no limit to human potential uplifting the entire human civilisation to an unimaginable paradigm. The System exists because it serves a purpose. Nothing will happen if you criticise it. If you want to criticise the system then do something.

Recently I read a post on LinkedIn someone complaining quality of IIT Bombay, ISB, IIM and Harvard students and suggesting students to join her coaching institute with a modern sophisticated name but ultimately is a coaching institute only. Better would have been designing a small video course and uploading it on you tube and explaining what is the problem she encountered and what should be a better approach or methodology.

We need to build such an ecosystem where there is no need of coaching institutes. We need to leverage the use and the potential of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in teaching and learning process for all learners.

Post Covid 2019 we have seen a boost in digitalisation and growth of EdTech Companies and further New Education Policy 2020 promotes use of online methods of learning like flipped classrooms using hybrid learning.

Launched in May 2020 PM e-VIDYA integrates all initiatives whether Digital or Online or ON Air enabling coherent Multi Mode Inter Disciplinary access to education. It has four components DIKSHA (One Nation, One Digital Education) Platform; Swayam Prabha TV channels, extensive use of Radio, Community Radio and Podcasts and One DTH channel for differently abled students.

DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing) a national platform for school education launched in 2017 by National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has been declared as ‘One Nation, One Digital Platform’ under the aegis of the Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India. The DIKSHA platform provides all three stakeholders i.e. Teachers, Students and Parents prescribed learning material in 36 Indian Languages. Teachers can access lesson plans, worksheets and activities, to enrich classroom experience making it more enjoyable. Students can understand concepts, practice and revise study material as many times as they like. Parents can follow classroom activities and solve any doubts outside school hours conveniently.

Further around 154 Universities have agreed to support e-PGPathshala Online Gateway of Post Graduate Courses to boost Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) by accepting credit transfer for courses available on SWAYAM platform. National Education Policy further boosts Vocational courses by offering them through Open Distance Learning (ODL) mode.

It is just the beginning of more exciting time when technology will enable a spectrum of choices of learning which can be tailored to the needs of learner and learning will become a joy rather than an important requirement. People would love to share their knowledge fostering a climate of innovations and out of the box thinking and India would show the entire world the path to such a creative and innovative society.

(The author is an IAS officer, IIT Madras, Electrical Engineer, CM Awardee, CFA L1; views are personal.)