Examination coaching crisis: It’s a monster of our own creation

Let’s be honest, are we not being blasé when we push our children toward what we perceive as socially prestigious fields like engineering and medicine even if their true interests lie elsewhere? 

We all have stories of families that borrow or pledge to send their kids to these coaching centres, driven by the hope that “they will settle down well in life better than us." It’s easy to blame the system, but the truth is that we are the system. We’ve turned education into a high-stakes race. Should we be astonished that the coaching industry is thriving?

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Are we not as a society singularly responsible for creating generations of formally educated but not job-ready participants in India’s workforce? Should we not take due credit for instilling in our younger generation the false hope that education, as we’ve structured it, will solve their life challenges and livelihood needs? 

We have created a monster called tuitions, turning it into a full-fledged industry. And now demanding government regulation of this sector defies logic. It assumes that regulatory frameworks are a panacea for all ills. Have we really learnt nothing from the fact that Indian education already suffers under the tight grip of regulators and regulatory elites?

Education regulations in India have largely failed by focusing on control rather than quality, creating an environment where bureaucratic oversight has taken precedence over ensuring that students receive meaningful and relevant education. 

These regulations have done more than just stifle innovation. They have actively served the interests of certain elites whose institutions have benefited from regulatory capture.

By imposing everything that has little to do with real-world educational needs, the system allowed well-connected institutions to flourish under the guise of compliance, while genuine educational reform got sidelined. 

This has led to a proliferation of mediocre institutions that meet regulatory requirements on paper but offer little in terms of actual learning outcomes. 

The result is a deeply flawed system where the employability of graduates is poor, Indian universities struggle to compete globally, and inequities in access to quality education persist—benefiting a few at the expense of the many.

Let’s not forget how local political stakeholders in the 1980s used education as a means to wash their ‘black’ money into white, using this as a lifelong annuity scheme. This era saw the mushrooming of engineering and medical colleges and ‘institutions’ built on the foundations of capitation fees and management seat sales.

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Many of these legacy institutions have done everything they can to cover themselves in glory and seek respectability. They’ve been generously granted university status, with influential figures in the country eager to be associated with their events and advertisements.

Is it any wonder then that we are mired in academic and intellectual poverty? Few of our educational institutions are counted among the world’s best in either intellectual accomplishment or the creation of intellectual property. Our children look to the West for quality education and opportunities because we have failed them at home.

The psychological toll on students ensnared in the relentless cycle of exams and coaching is troubling. The constant pressure to excel and meet the demands of coaching centres leads to severe stress, anxiety and burnout. 

Students endure sleepless nights and overwhelming workloads, driven by an ever-present fear of failure. This toxic environment stifles their natural curiosity and enthusiasm, replacing it with dread and inadequacy. The emotional cost is high, with rising rates of depression and anxiety among these young learners.

As a society, we merely applaud movies like Kota Factory and Three Idiots that highlight such issues, offering momentary empathy. But we fail to address systemic problems. Our collective response is to acknowledge the crisis fleetingly and move on, neglecting the urgency of meaningful change.

The meteoric rise of edtech promised to democratize education. Yet, it has paradoxically entrenched the very coaching culture it sought to disrupt, turning the pursuit of knowledge into a relentless race. In striving to level the playing field, these platforms have inadvertently deepened the cycle of competition and pressure.

The coaching and tuition sector is not some external enemy—it is a problem of our own making. The relentless pursuit of academic success through coaching places a heavy economic burden on middle-class families, often pushing them into financial strain or debt, while returns on investment in education get increasingly elusive.

Also read: Why India's runaway coaching centres need regulating

It reflects our collective failure to prioritize genuine learning over the pursuit of high-stakes exams and societal prestige. To dismantle this monstrosity, we must confront the uncomfortable truth that we are both the creators and sustainers of this flawed system. 

Only then can we begin to chart a course toward an education system that truly serves the needs of our children, rather than perpetuating a cycle of pressure, rote learning and unfulfilled potential.