Ranchi, October 27: Tough competition, rising aspirations, combined with the falling quality of mainstream education, have meant that coaching classes have become a norm rather than an exception. As per a report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), though not yet formally recognized as an industry, the coaching sector is estimated to be worth more than $40 billion industry, growing at a CAGR of 35%.
Small town, big numebrs
Given these impressive numbers, it is no surprise that these centers are increasingly penetrating in the smaller towns. According to the Jharkhand Coaching Association, in places such as Ranchi, the number of coaching centres has shot up from 200 in 2012 to about 10,000 in 2018. In Nagpur, the number has risen from 110 in 2008 to 5,000, estimates the Maharashtra Class Owners Association. Bhubaneswar, Patna and Madurai have seen spikes too.
Data from All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) suggests that only 35% of students enrolled in the colleges of their choice got jobs in the field last year. And given that so many engineering aspirants simply give up on the field if they don’t secure an IIT seat, it’s not surprising that AICTE also records that 47% seats at engineering colleges went vacant last year.
At the IITs, students from small-town centres who do make it, struggle in a different way. “We are seeing more students coming from smaller cities,” says Anurag Sharma, dean of student affairs at IIT-Delhi. “There can be two reasons: well-known coaching centres have penetrated here and are training lakhs of students to crack the JEE; and students from bigger cities are abandoning the IIT route to study abroad, where admission into a good institution is easier,” he adds.
India leads way in online tutoring
According to a study by Global Industry Analysts (GIA), the global private tutoring market was projected to surpass $102.8 billion by 2018. GIA figures state that United States, Europe, and Asia-Pacific (notably Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and China) are responsible for more than 90% of the global private tutoring market and most importantly South Korea alone is going to reach $19.5 billion – roughly 20% of the entire market. In addition, India is leading the way in online tutoring by offering professional linguistic and academic coaching capabilities at an affordable cost.
Validating this trend, the coaching city of the country, Kota, grabbed eye balls by making an annual turnover of Rs 1,500 crore. A recent study conducted by the ASSOCHAM reveals that 70% of the parents from the uppermost to the bottom stratum of the social hierarchy are in the favor of spending or donating a hefty sum to these coaching institutes in the name of education. They believe that coaching classes that help their kids in the preparation of competitive exams and also is the only gateway for securing admission in prestigious institutes like Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM).
50% of the total spent on education goes in coaching
Parents are known to spend any amount of money when it comes to the education of their children. As many as 35% of Indian students take up coaching in their lifetime and 33% of the middle class income is spent on their children’s education. As many as 50% of the total income spent on education goes in coaching.
As coaching institutes increasingly become a recession-proof industry, parents and students in smaller towns need to brace themselves against its pitfalls. IIT-JEE (IIT-Joint Entrance Examination) has only 5,500 seats but every year more than 300,000 students appear for the examination. AIEEE (All India Engineering Entrance Examination) just have 9,000 seats but it is no surprise that more than 5,25,000 eyes are glued on them. More than 170,000 appear for the All India Pre Medical Test (AIPMT) for a mere 1,600 seats such is the sad ratio of the total number of students appearing to the total number of seats available. However, almost everyone is attending the coaching classes to be the winner.