Strident protests and threats of prolonged litigation by Maharashtras powerful coaching classes and test prep schools lobby have torpedoed the state governments Private Coaching Classes Regulatory Bill which had been readied for enactment in the monsoon session (July 14-August 30) of the state legislative assembly. The states BJP-Shiv Sena coalition government was determined to enact a law to regulate the states estimated 50,000 coaching schools with education minister Vinod Tawde making a statement in the assembly to that effect on July 16.
Inevitably, instead of addressing the root of the problem — poor quality K-12, particularly government-provided education, inadequate capacity and low grade higher education (school reform and capacity expansion in higher education would require doubling budgetary outlays for education from the current 2.22 percent of GSDP (gross state domestic product) — the state government has opted to clamp down on coaching schools.

Some aspirational middle class households sign up children as young as 12-13 years for supplementary education to prepare them for class X and XII board exams, while it has become almost normative for Plus Two (classes XI-XII) students to abandon school classes and sign up with test prep firms in preparation for entry into top-ranked colleges and cracking public entrance exams. In 2000 an ordinance issued by the government to regulate the tuition fees of coaching schools was stayed by the Mumbai high court. In 2008 a committee was convened under the chairmanship of educationist Ashok Pradhan to suggest fees control and other regulations, but nothing came of it. In January 2017, the incumbent BJP-Shiv Sena government constituted a 14-member committee with six representatives of the test prep industry. The Maharashtra Private Coaching Classes Regulation Bill is based on its recommendations.

The Bill, which distinguishes coaching schools from home tuition establishments, does not put a cap on tuition fees except to stipulate that they should be ‘reasonable. But it stipulates that coaching schools (defined as enterprises with more than five students) should pay 1 percent of their profit (cf. 5 percent of turnover stipulated in the first draft) as tax to the state government. It also prescribes several infrastructure norms (separate toilets, parking etc), registration of all private coaching schools with licences to be renewed every three years after inspection and no-objection certificates from local (ward-level government) authorities. However, following loud objections, a provision to reserve a 5 percent quota for under-privileged students of state board affiliated schools was dropped from the final Bill.

Unsurprisingly, the national coaching classes and test prep business has become a huge industry with several test prep companies such as Allen Career Institute, Sri Chaitanya and PACE, and the ‘test prep town of Kota (Rajasthan) having become household names. In Maharashtra, the Mumbai-based Mahesh Tutorials Ltd (revenue: Rs.222.62 crore in 2017-18) is a publicly listed company.

The government needs to acknowledge that coaching institutes and private tutorials make up for deficiencies of the mainstream education system. While NEET and JEE exams are held in January and February, college terms end in March every year. With summer vacations and other holidays, their actual term calendar is so short that most schools and colleges are unable to finish the required portion fully. Coaching firms on the other hand conduct classes throughout summer and help students cover the prescribed syllabus, says Subhash Joshi, trustee of the Mumbai-based Science Parivar Trust.

The provisions of the Bill, which also makes it mandatory for coaching institutes to register each branch with a designated district government officer and prescribes arrest for violations, have raised fears of licence-permit-quota and inspector raj entering the tutorials industry. The provisions of the Bill are draconian. The first draft included a provision that any violation by private tuition units/firms would attract a Rs.5 lakh penalty and/or imprisonment with no right of appeal to any court. After objections were raised, the second draft modified this provision to warn of police action. Such provisions leave us to the tender mercies of government officials and the police. We are also being asked to pay 1 percent of our profits towards an Education Development Fund that will be used to train school teachers. Why should commercial businesses function like charitable institutions? Like all commercial industries, we already pay professional tax, income tax and GST. Why are we being singled out to pay this extra cess? The Bill enacted in its present form will result in forceclosure of smaller coaching classes, warns Ladika Ruke, founder of the Aeternus Academy, Mumbai (estb.2007).

With promoters of private coaching and home units not yet satisfied with the provisions of the Bill which will now be tabled in the winter session, the state government is reportedly studying similar legislation elsewhere. Even as Maharashtra struggles to get its regulations right, it could examine the Goa Coaching Classes Regulation Act 2001, UP Regulation of Coaching Classes Act 2002 and the Bihar Coaching Institutes Control Regulation Act 2010 before putting the final touches on its own Bill.

Dipta Joshi (Mumbai)