Mahendra Tiwari
Education in India is no longer just a medium for acquiring knowledge. It has gradually turned into a huge business. The brightest and most dangerous face of this business is the private competitive tuition industry. From the walls of cities to the news boards, smiles of students who have scored the highest marks, photographs of selected students and tall claims of success are seen everywhere. Such an environment has been created that without these institutions success seems impossible. Lakhs of families, irrespective of their economic status, are sending their children to these centers because they feel that this is the only way for their future.
According to government surveys, today about 27 to 33 percent of students in India are taking some kind of private education. This number is higher in urban areas. In cities like Delhi, about 39 percent students have been found to be associated with these institutions. This figure not only tells about the status of education but also shows the mental pressure in which the society is living. Trust in schools and colleges has diminished and these business centers have been considered a shortcut to success.
The most worrying thing is that a large part of this industry is based more on marketing than education. Today, the work of connecting students through virtual mediums is being done on a large scale. According to a report, about 62 percent of admissions are now happening through internet based promotion. This means that education is now running on the same model of advertising and identity building as any big business establishment. The only difference is that here the product is not a commodity but the future of the students.
The biggest trick of these institutes is their selection performance. If 5 or 10 students are selected in the crowd of thousands and lakhs of students, then the same faces start appearing on every advertisement board. Such an environment is created that every student feels that he will be the next face. But no one asks what happened to the remaining thousands of students. The struggle of those students who kept paying fees for years, who kept studying in rented rooms, whose families got drowned in debt, does not find a place in any advertisement.
The biggest game here is numbers. Some institutions attract huge crowd of poor and middle class students by keeping fees low. Hearing the fee of Rs 1000 or Rs 2000, students feel that they are getting a huge opportunity. But when lakhs of such students join, the same small amount turns into a business worth crores. Low charges do not mean lack of service. Sometimes this is a strategy to gather crowd. The bigger the crowd, the bigger the profit and the bigger the success story.
The irony is that students do their own hard work but the entire institution takes the credit. If a student becomes successful, the institution says that it is the result of his education. But if lakhs of students fail then no one takes responsibility for it. The unsuccessful student is told that he did not work hard enough. In this way, success is made of the institution and failure of the student. Today this industry has also changed the mindset of the students. Earlier the aim of education was to develop understanding. Now education is limited only to passing exams
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