oppn parties Dummy Schools, Coaching Centres And Children Below 16

News Snippets

  • Calcutta HC says Cricket Association of Bengal is not liable to pay tax on advertisement inisde Eden Gardens cricket ground as it is not a 'public place' because it does not have unrestricted access for the general public
  • Supreme Court admits a plea from a child of a single OBC mother who had applied for an OBC certificate for her son
  • Supreme Court approves applying strict preventive detention laws for 'cybercriminals'
  • SBI likely to shift part of operations of its Global Market Unit from Kolkata to Mumbai
  • FM nirmala Sitharaman calls for a "structured, process-driven approach to compliance" and asks top I-T officials to speed up refunds and simplify processes
  • Marine insurance costs surge as the oil corridor in Strait of Homruz becomes risky due to war
  • Stocks weaken on Monday on global cues: sensex sheds 511 points to 81896 and Nifty 140 points to 24971
  • Former left-arm spinner Dilip Doshi dies in London at 77. He played for India in 33 Test matches and for Bengal in domestic tournaments
  • Pant becomes the only keeper to score two centuries in the same Test in England
  • England Test: Rishabh Pant hits his second ton and KL Rahul a classy century to put India on top, England need 350 runs on the last day, with the ptich showing signs of wear and tear
  • DGCA orders an audit of the entire aviation ecosystem in the wake of recent snags in many flights after the AI Dreamliner crash in Ahmedabad
  • 2 Pahalgam residents arrested by NIA for sheltering and aiding 3 terrorists who killed civilian tourists in pahalgam tell the agency that there were 3 LeT ultras from Pakistan that carried out the attack
  • India unlikely to agree to US demands for lower tariffs on agri products and GM food, trade deal faces fresh hurdles
  • Stocks likely to plummet today as traders will be worried about the effect of US strike on iran, oil price rise and possible inflation. Foreign funds may also withdraw in the volatile global situation
  • Oil prices likely to shoot up as US strikes at iran and the latter decides to close the Strait of Homruz
Rishabh Pant hits second century of the match, becomes only wicketkeeper to hit two tons in the same Test in England ////// England need 350 runs to win in 90 overs on the final day
oppn parties
Dummy Schools, Coaching Centres And Children Below 16

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2024-01-23 14:44:12

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

The Centre had last week issued new guidelines to register and regulate coaching centres. These guidelines were necessitated as unregulated and unregistered coaching centres were functioning without any rules. There were complaints about lack of infrastructure (students packed in small rooms, no toilets and lack of drinking water, among other things), under-qualified teachers, exorbitant fees and other anomalies. Then there was the problem of student suicides due to lack of counseling and immense pressure. Another thing which the Centre did was to mandate that enrolment of students could take place only after the student had passed the secondary examination or attained the age of 16. This the government has done for two reasons - one, to ensure holistic development of younger children in proper schools and two, to reduce the pressure on children below 16 so that their childhood is not lost.

The last has irked the coaching centres as between 10 to 15 % of their revenue comes from enrolling students below 16 years in age. In a meeting of the Coaching Federation of India, a body which claims a membership of 25000 centres, it was decided to seek legal advice on how to fight this fiat. The Federation wants the government to relax the age limit as it feels that students need to start at a younger age to crack the fiercely competitive exams.

But on the flip side, especially in towns like Kota, dummy or proxy schools have come up that are used by these coaching centres to enroll  students as young as 10 years. While the students attend coaching classes for IIT/JEE or medical or any other course, these schools provide them attendance and promote them to higher class every year by proxy. This is something that is an impediment in their holistic development. That is why the government has fixed the age at 16 and when the child has passed his secondary examination and is ready to choose what he wants to do next.