Ram Krishna emphasies that the tragic drowning of three civil service aspirants in a Delhi coaching centre underscores the need for reform in the Indian coaching industry to combat exploitation, exclusively for Different Truths.
The heartbreaking incident of three civil services aspirants drowning in a flooded basement of a coaching centre in Delhi is a wake-up call for all of us. While the shocking event has again exposed the civic administration of its inefficiency and corruption, and the regulatory bodies of their poor oversight, an urgent need now is to scan the conduct of the coaching centres running across the country.
It is a common knowledge that, in India, there is a desperation to clear competitive exams to either enter premier academic institutions or get reputable government jobs. In this backdrop, along with the aspirants, their entire family, friends, and extended kinship, are invested in the aspirant’s future, through consistent financial and moral support. The prevailing emotions, sentiments and desperation around the exams, naturally provide fertile ground for coaching centres to leverage, mushroom and flourish. No surprise, their expanse, both physical and digital, has grown significantly across all Indian states.
Selling “Secret Sauce” to crack exams
The coaching centres promise, overtly or covertly, to pass on a ‘secret sauce’ that can help the aspirants master the art of cracking the exams and game the system. Given the wide publicity and billboards of these centres claiming their contribution in getting their candidates crack the test, it is tempting for any new aspirant to fall for the gimmicks. The claims, on a closer look, appear half-truths, spurious or hollow.
Clearly, while at the one hand, the secret sauce is elusive, on the other, the day-to-day experience of the aspirants, in terms of availability of even basic civic amenities is horrid.
Need for redemption
Here are five lessons the coaching centres may take to heal and redeem themselves:
#Setting up grievance redressal committee: The coaching centres should consider setting up a grievance-redressal committee
inducting people of high respectability and integrity. Provision of basic amenities is imperative. It is not that the centres lack financial resources given the huge fees charged from aspirants, and investors’ money, many big centres garner. The centres, having large presence in the city/country, may take a lead. Indeed, adoption of best practices and standards by big players in the business will have a demonstration effect on other small players.
#Sensitisation course for top management and faculty: There should be a sensitisation program for management personnel and, more particularly, faculties. Suitable refresher courses, on suitable intervals, are needed for them to re-energize, re-learn and reflect. Certain core values and code of ethics need to be the touchstone of any progressive business, more specifically, for those in the business of learning and academics.
#Evaluation of faculty by the aspirants: The aspirants should continuously rate the faculties. Domain expertise is very much needed, but their energy level, humaneness, animatedness, passion, and worldview are equally important. High performing and top-rated faculties should be rewarded. This way, the aspirants can get value for their money and the centres can retain a brilliant faculty for a long.
#Handholding the aspirants to handle set-backs: The success ratio in the competitive exams in India is too tough. Large number of aspirants fail to clear despite multiple attempts. For such candidates, the centres may run free counseling cells for guidance on alternative career paths. It is important that such disillusioned youngsters, otherwise having potential and merit to create a mark elsewhere, remain optimistic and do not develop a defeatist mindset in life.
#Coaching Federation/ Body must act fast
The coaching federation or body, apart from overseeing the affairs of the centres closely, can also frame guidelines or code of conduct for strict compliances. Reforms must come from within. Such pro-active initiatives will serve as virtue-signaling that they, as collective entities, are willing to subject themselves to the tenets of transparency, accountability and empathy.
The above lessons can help redeem the coaching centres by enhancing their credibility in the eyes of aspirants, their parents, and society at large. Then, the coaching process, by becoming a grooming process, can turn out to be a memorable experience for the millions of aspirants in their arduous journey to achieve success in career and life.
Picture design by Anumita Roy
Ram Krishna Sinha is a former General Manager at Bank of India, and lives in Mumbai. After three and half decades of distinguished career in the Bank, he is presently invested in talent mapping, management education and writing for newspapers and magazines on contemporary issues. An author of the motivational book “X-Factor @Workplace” published by Tata McGraw Hill, he is an Opinion Columnist for the CEOWORLD magazine.
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