 "Education ministry forms panel to cut coaching centre dependance")
The Union Ministry of Education has set up an eleven-member panel to deliberate on concerns regarding the coaching centre ecosystem and suggest measures to reduce students’ dependency on these centres for their transition to higher education.
To be chaired by Higher Education Secretary Vineet Joshi, the panel also includes the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) chairman, joint secretaries from the departments of school and higher education, and representatives from three IITs — Madras, Trichy and Kanpur — as well as the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
The panel will also include three members to be nominated from among the principals of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Navodaya Vidyalaya and a private school.
According to the order accessed by Business Standard, the panel will examine the reasons behind the emergence of dummy schools and their role in encouraging full-time coaching at the cost of formal schooling, and will suggest ways to mitigate the issue.
This comes after the CBSE, in March 2025, barred students enrolled in dummy schools from appearing for the Class 12 examinations. Dummy schools are institutions where students are officially enrolled but are not required to attend regular classes.
These schools are often associated with students preparing for competitive entrance exams like the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for engineering courses and the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for medical courses.
Calling the initiative a much-needed step towards reimagining schooling in the country, Dr Ameeta Mulla Wattal, chairperson and executive director, Education, Innovations and Training at DLF Foundation Schools and Scholarship Programmes, said the move helps reclaim school systems that have been rendered irrelevant — particularly at the senior level — due to the rise of dummy schools.
The committee will also examine gaps in the current schooling system, particularly the limited focus on critical thinking and logical reasoning, and the prevalence of rote learning.
Dr Wattal added that there needs to be discussion on the misalignment between school and coaching curricula, noting that an exam-centric system of rote learning may not help students develop academic depth in their subjects.
The Joshi committee will further study the effectiveness and fairness of competitive examinations in the context of school education, and their role in the growth of the coaching industry.
It has also been tasked with evaluating awareness levels among students and parents regarding multiple career pathways and career counselling.
The panel will additionally review advertising practices, including the use of misleading claims and promotion of selective success stories, and suggest measures to address the issue.
This comes after the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) issued guidelines last year for the Prevention of Misleading Advertisements in the Coaching Sector, in response to growing concerns about exaggerated success rates, misleading claims and unfair contracts often imposed by coaching institutes.