It was shocking news. The BJP-PDP government recently called for a 90-day shutdown of private coaching centres across Jammu and Kashmir.

The order has frustrated students, who can’t afford to miss the extra classes, and messed up their well-charted study plans for the year. What remains precious now is the essential study material from these private study centres.

Such uncertainty makes it difficult to identify exactly what quality-enhancing education reforms look like in practice, and shows the state government as keeping education of students path-dependent rather than implementing policies that will boost the quality of studies.

According to a report in Economic Times, the coaching centres are pushing for a dialogue with the government on the shutdown. The government notice read that “the situation will be reviewed after 15 days, and till then private registered tuition centres will have to provide information on number of students, fee, details on faculty, etc”.

In the wake of the order, one thing becomes clear: as long as the pen is held by politicians, with stakeholders no part of the decision-making, good quality education is difficult to achieve.

A discouraging system

On April 22, the minister for education in the state, Altaf Bukhari, went on to term coaching centres a “distraction for students”. But does the government even know the ground reality?

It is widely believed that education in the state’s schools isn’t good enough, and is especially affected by frequent shutdowns, instability and sporadic violence in the valley.

Why don’t these ministers speak of their collective failure, and the failure of successive governments, and the entire political class, when it comes to education in the state?

Instead of addressing the problems of students and investing in measures that improve their achievements (developing new methods of classroom teachings, infrastructure, giving space to students to explain their ideas and other platforms), the government is calling private coaching centres money-making machines and a distraction.

One just needs to travel across Kashmir and look at the decaying state of education in government-run schools. Many are surrounded by cattle dung and look worse than a cattle-shed. These schools don’t even qualify to be called schools. How does one expect quality learning and teaching at such schools?

Mustn’t one think of providing quality infrastructure and teaching resources before putting a ban on private coaching centres – which is currently the only decent way of getting quality education in the state? Successive governments have failed to boost funding to primary and secondary state educational institutes in the restive valley, and thus improve the measurable capacities, skills and knowledge of its young citizens.

Importance of coaching centres

According to Coaching Centres Association, as many as 550 registered private tuition centres teach around 60,000 students across the valley.

Student interest in education is, in large part, driven by the knowledge and skills that they actually gain from these private centres. Going by the state of things, depending on just schools for learning would result in students who will “not be much better off than those kids who never attend school”.

Unlike teachers at school who are overburdened with clerical work which reduces their motivation for the teaching job, the responsibility of teachers at the private tuition centres does not end with just teaching the curriculum. They provide relevant, exam-oriented suggestions, notes and handouts and guide students in the right direction by familiarising them with the range of content they must cover for the exam, help develop skills and abilities by providing essential study material; and take mock tests with model papers and assessment exams.

As the demand for education is increasing, the graph of supply seems to be going down. The private institutes increase the level of supply by accommodating more and more students for better education.

The aim of the private institutes is to give extra care, not only to A grade school students but to each and every student. From motivating students to try different things to guiding them through their examinations, the institutes are providing quality teaching methods and valued-based knowledge.

Besides, teachers at such institutes earn a smart amount of money to inspire others like them in society. The profit earned at these institutes is mostly kept aside to invest in this sector only. Such supportive mentorship can hardly be seen in schools and colleges.