Is this the end of Coaching Institutes?

Thursday, April 20, 2006
Is this the end of Coaching Institutes?
The Screening paper (objective type test), which was the first phase of old IITJEE pattern used to have 28 to 30 questions per subject to solve in 60 minutes. That made it 2 minutes per question.All questions had just one answer correct with 3 marks given for the right answer and 1mark deducted for the wrong answer.

The IITJEE paper on April 9, 2006 had 12 questions carrying (3, -1) markseach, 8 questions carrying (5, -1) marks each, 12 questions carrying (5, -2)marks each and 8 questions carrying (6, 0) marks each. (x,y) means x marksgiven for the correct answer and y marks deducted for the wrong answer.IITJEE 2006 was expected to be different.

What the students faced was beyond their wildest imagination. The surprise element managed to achieve its objective. It is expected that only good students who have strongunderstanding of fundamentals will benefit. While the good students who hadstudied well for schools with a good understanding of the subjects enjoyedthe paper, students trained by coaching institutes faced a rude shock. The students of a coaching institute based in Punjabi Bagh in Delhi, which is run by IITians had a particularly tough time. They had been made tobelieve that their entry to IITs is almost sure as almost 70% students ofthat institute get thru to IITs. They had neglected their school workand focused on practising a particular type of long problems which were apart of the old pattern of IITJEE. Now, many of these exceptionally bright students (Coaching programs select the best in the country toreduce their risk) may not get thrru to IITs. They may also have a lessthan average performance in Class XII boards examinations.

Similarly the students who went to kota are feeling cheated. They had been made to practise for a particular kind of examination which never happened. The students in Kota are struck very badly. They spent over 1.5lakhs in kota over the last 2 years. They neglected their school to get thru to IITJEE. Now, they may have lost out on all accounts.The coaching classes of Kota and Delhi had become synonymous withback-door entry to IITJEE. Some believed that there was no need to look atschool studies as coaching program coaching program could put them thru to IITs.

The educationist community was particularly distressed. Principals and teachers saw the results and attendance of the best of their students drop against the on slaught of caoching. Finally, after muchhue and cry, the changes were made with the objective of reducing the clout of coaching on competitions and aligning the IITJEE with school studies.The attack was particularly directed towards kota which has become a hub forcoaching.The intake of good students is expected to drop. Kota, is assumed to befinished.

Kota has a history of mercurial rise and falls. It witnessedthe shutting down of JK Synthetics and then the mushrooming of Coaching. Now, the coaching game is all but over. Students from outside kota will not go to kota anymore. Similarly, the biggest loser in Delhi is expected to be the coaching centers of Punjabi Bagh and Kalu Sarai. The hype around coaching had attractedpeople from South India to open centers in Delhi. These institutes areshouting about faculty members whose knowledge about IITJEE has become obsolete.

Is it the end for Coaching? Experts believe that the hype of coaching will reduce drastically. This can be guaged from the fact that a lot of teachers in Kota have startedlooking for alternate careers. Since the competition is so tough (less than2% get thru), expert coaching would be required. However, it would have to be aligned to school work. It will be closer to small group tutoring. Someof the big names will get a tremendous hit on their business. The opportunity seen by MBA coaching institutes in IITJEE coaching would disappear. Some specialized Tutoring cum Coaching setups like QuestTutorials will benefit tremendously. Quest is run by IITians who saw theneed to align school studies to coaching 3 years back. According to Praveen Tyagi, Director Quest, "we are in luck as our program has become veryrelevant suddenly for the new ITTJEE pattern". The established coaching institutes will also make the required changes but such changes take over anyear to get implemented which will be too much time wasted for students.