Coaching CARTEL- PART 1
Nagpur – As parents we all want that our child should make the best out of their life and that we think can be achieved with a proper and formal education no matter what ever it costs, never ever considering whether is it actually worth spending on those so-called foundation courses offered by numerous coaching/preparation institutes at an exorbitant price/fee.
Normally a 2-year IIT/JEE- NEET preparation from a private coaching institute costs nothing less than eighty thousand to 1 lac 80 thousand (for local institutes), however the fees are twice or even thrice if the coaching institute is a local or National premium brand and their fee ranges anywhere from 3 lacs to 4 lacs for a two-year prep course.
This amount a parent would spend happily even if it means to borrow money, take loans, fix EMI’s, advance from PF or whatever it takes just to ensure that their ward becomes a doctor or an engineer by cracking IIT-JEE/NEET examinations. The parents get this conviction from the academic counsellors at the coaching institutes who brain wash the parents with their amazing sales pitch and examples thus making the parents believe that cracking the exams is just a cake walk (HALWA you may call it….) provided that their child should learn from their institute. Every institute makes such bold statements, but none of them can Guarantee it. Ask them if they can guarantee that???
There is an immense competition out there……it’s almost a 1:10 ratio. Which means that for each seat there are a minimum of 10 best contenders from all over India. In simple words there are lakhs and lakhs of aspirants competing for a few thousand seats.
But does it actually happen? Do all the coaching students finally make it to GMC’s and IIT’s???????? The harsh reality is a big NO. Out of some 6000 odd students from all big and small institutes in Nagpur hardly 50 to 60 students from Nagpur are able to secure a free seat and that too from a renowned College or a college of their choice (depending on their scores in ALL INDIA RANKING) the rest have to settle for whatever seats are is left in which ever college (because of their low scores in ALL INDIA RANKING).
Getting good All India Ranking (score/rank) greatly depends on many crucial aspects. The two main aspects are the caliber and Potential. Caliber and potential go hand in hand, but very few parents actually figure this out correctly. The parents are made to believe that their child is no lesser than Einstein. The counsellors with their hard-selling skills create such a Hype that by the time you are out of that coaching institute you have already paid the coaching fee and are convinced that very shortly there will be a doctor or an Engineer walking in their house. The counsellors brain washes the parents about the non-existing caliber and potential of their own child in such a manner that despite being aware of the past bad academic record, they fail to comprehend that it’s not at all as easy as the academic counsellor is bluffing it to be. Had it been so easy then why only a handful out of thousands of coaching students from Nagpur make it to IIT’s and GMC’s? A question that you need to ask yourself as parents. It’s the parents fault that they get fooled in believing what those hardcore sales person (academic Advisors) make you dream of something that actually wouldn’t ever happen. Because they make you believe that your child has all the merits to qualify but the truth is that your child had always been an average student. How can the caliber be increased in a child who does not have the potential of being able to study for minimum 12 hours in a day? How can the potential to study more be induced or cultivated in a student that was always an average scorer in his academic life and never studied for more than a couple of hours and that too only when the exams were round the bend? Can the caliber be increased in a student that does not even have the potential? But all these flaws in your child, which you are very well aware of too are made to vanish when the sales person at the coaching starts to counsel you and tell you that practice will make him perfect.
I am not suggesting that your child cannot do it, neither am I demotivating you as parents or the child, but what I am trying to make the parents realize is that don’t fall victim to what the coaching institutes falsely make you believe, to which is not going to happen, to which is not possible, to which even they would not take a guarantee of.
You as parents need to be the judge of your child’s potential and caliber and also the child’s wish and confidence because we all know the fact very well that coaching institutes are the biggest and the most flourishing business these days. That’s the reason that each day you will see a new name mushrooming in coaching industry.
In our following series you will get to know all that there is to know about these institutions, how they work, how they lure the parents to shell out the exorbitant coaching fee, the bitter truth behind the hype by the name of entrance exams and prescreening exams, how they got in touch with you, the coaching and school nexus, caliber, potential or pressure, and much more…….
Next in series…. How did they get your number and how do they know all about you?
– Saj Shakir
