What Are Coaching Classes?. Review on Agrawal Classes, Tilak Road, Pune

I am basically against coaching classes. Whether Agarwal, Chate, Bhola, Tiwari, Vidyalankar or any other Alankar. I believe these classes are not coaching classes but cheating classes and misleading classes. They are misleading because they do not coach. At best they train you to mug up and answer questions in the examinations. Otherwise, for the most part they are money making establishments. In my time, when I was young and studying, coaching was meant and was required to remove weakness in some subjects or overall. Now coaching class joining has become sort of mandatory, more important than your regular class. There is an atmosphere of phobia created by these so called coaching class owners. If a student does not join one of these classes he feels left out and fears he won’t be able to write his examination. Parents find themselves in a dilemma and have to let their sons and daughters join some coaching class or the other. Such is the environment that without joining some coaching class or the other, education is felt to be incomplete As a result even parents who are not in favour of this type of coaching are forced to let their children join these classes, whatever their worth. Some of the owners of these classes are even rumoured to get the question papers and give the same questions to their coaching teachers so that the students can practice.

When I was young and studying, in school or college, any type of coaching was a sign of weakness. Only students weak in some subject or overall went for coaching to some teacher. There were no regular commercial coaching classes then. Now coaching classes are mushrooming everywhere and of all types and for all levels of education. They are nominally and merely in the business of education but more in the business of cheating and money making. There are coaching classes even for eighth standard not to speak of board examinations like tenth and twelfth standards. In addition there are coaching classes for all types of entrance examinations, science, engineering, management and so on.

Regular school and college teachers are taking their job of teaching easy. Teachers have no qualms in telling their students that they must have joined some coaching class or the other and do not require class room teaching. Students themselves take their regular class room teaching easy and miss these in favour of coaching classes. Coaching classes are only examination oriented and their one and sole aim is to show result. Whether students get knowledge, learn something or not is not their concern. These classes do not and cannot impart education. The latter is of no concern to them.

Some of the more successful coaching classes do not even admit students who have not scored marks above a certain minimum in their last regular examination. These marks already put them in the brilliant category. They do not require any coaching. They study on their own and do very well. Others admit students who have secured at least a first class and so goes the story of coaching classes.

In my considered view and belief commercial coaching is a drag on students and society. There is a crying need to regulate them if not altogether ban. The least that should be done is to pass a law that they have to admit on first come first basis without any regard to the marks secured in earlier examinations. After all they are engaged in the profession of teaching so that a weak student augments his learning from their intensive coaching in addition to regular school/college classes. These classes ought to remove the weaknesses of their pupils and make them confident and prepare them to face the examinations better.