Coaching centres have sprung up from the remotest parts of the country to the capital city, with their presence ranging from important spots to lanes and by-lanes, which appear before us as a visual reality.
We offer academic coaching, university admission coaching, medical coaching, and coaching for medical and engineering admissions, cadet coaching, cadet admissions coaching, army-navy-air force coaching, BCS coaching, and job placement coaching. One daily newspaper has reported that the city has 33 coaching centres solely for helping students get admission to universities in the city.
A question naturally arises as to why so many and various types of coaching centres exist throughout the country. Have they been established automatically or with some other motif?
Our educational institutions have lost their primary objectives, making room for coaching centres in the form of a revolution in the country. I imagine that if educational institutions had not been the medium for obtaining certificates from education boards, what would be their situation?
Educational institutions teach learners to be social, develop their mental and physical well-being, and organise various types of co- and extracurricular activities with equal importance to academic aspects.
Students have to participate in extempore speeches, set speeches, staging dramas, games and sports, picnics, and other activities. All these contribute to the harmonious development of children. However, with the passage of time, most guardians believe that merely obtaining a certificate with higher grades for their children is enough.
When some educational institutions try to develop students harmoniously so that they can face the future challenges of the world, most guardians do not give any importance to it; instead, they think of only academic aspects, meaning they want schools and colleges to be reduced to only coaching centres, which should provide the prepared notes to the students. They memorise the scripts to get a good grade without understanding the main themes and purposes of learning different subjects.
When schools and colleges arrange other activities beyond this, they consider it a waste of time, and to ensure their children’s bright future, they send them to coaching centres.
Guardians want to see their children achieve a GPA of 5, and they try to get it done at any cost. They do not bother about whether their children can speak good Bangla, write anything in Bengali or English, or form a clear idea in mathematics, science, or social science.
They want teachers or schools to give students notes that they will memorise and achieve so-called better results. They never want their children to develop the valuable skills of their age, such as presentation skills, speaking skills, writing skills, social skills, and proficiency in games and sports, to learn discipline and become physically and mentally sound.
If any institutions try to emphasise these phenomena, guardians show reluctance towards those efforts. Moreover, some institutions inevitably try to do this, evading the real objectives of educating children, as educational institutions are social entities. They cannot exceed societal norms and demands.
Our educational institutions typically run classes for only 120 days a year, and these days are not entirely dedicated to academic purposes either. Students need adequate practice to master the basic ideas of any subject that may be insufficient in schools and colleges, which remain closed for various reasons. This is another valid reason why guardians send their children to coaching centres for more practice, as coaching centres run all year round without any vacations.
Students have to face an admission test to get admission into universities, medical colleges, or enter the armed forces (Army, Navy, and Air Force) after passing the HSC exam. Not all students read seriously on their own accord, except those who are truly serious and motivated.
Others do not study regularly. Even if some of them study, this is not a regular occurrence. They read by fits and starts. If they study seriously for three days, they do not study for another two or three days and waste their valuable time on other unproductive or illegal activities. As we know, an idle brain is the devil’s workshop.’
If they gain admission to coaching centres after passing the HSC, they can utilise their time more effectively. They remain busy with class, reading, and sitting for preparation tests repeatedly. They can assess their own reading status and progress. Moreover, they need more practice to master any subject, even though they pass the HSC with good grades.
Some specialised institutions, such as engineering, medical, and agricultural universities, require students to answer many critical and specialised questions. Visiting coaching centres, they become familiar with these techniques and methods. Therefore, highlighting only the negative aspects of coaching centres is not accurate.
Our education system is also exam-centric, which seriously discourages the real pursuit of knowledge and encourages the commercial aspects of education. Our coaching centres are very satisfying and end ideally.
Even in educational institutions, commercial teachers, meaning those who provide short suggestions and special teaching beyond the classes, are very popular with students and guardians. These teachers successfully commercialise education by giving students very selective and brief questions to help them achieve good grades without providing them with a basic understanding of the topics.
On the other hand, if you want to teach basic things to students to prepare them to face future life challenges, you may not be well-liked by your students, guardians, and society. Students will not go to you to receive a real education. Therefore, this is another reason for the emergence of sprouting coaching centres within and outside schools and colleges.
Twenty thousand crore taka is being transacted through coaching centres, which enhances and enlarges the commercialisation of education. An NGO named Education Communication shows that 30,000 to 35 crore taka in business transactions takes place through coaching centres.
Whereas, the Education Research Council states it to be a 25,000 crore taka business. The admission-related book market is worth Tk 400 crore. Coaching centres sell half of these books. Another report shows that the country has 6,587 registered coaching centres. However, without registration, this number may exceed two lacs.
This year, Udvas Coaching Centre has enrolled twenty thousand students, which has collected 15-20 thousand taka from each student, meaning a significant business. Our national dailies frequently publish this type of news, and some also claim that the lack of government monitoring is contributing to this issue.
They suggest government restrictions that I never appreciate, as government restrictions mean making way for law enforcement agencies and other state entities, as well as the taxation department, to earn some extra and potentially illegal money from these centres without doing anything beneficial for the people or education.
Government restrictions introduce complexities and corruption that we should not have to deal with. We can instead motivate and sensitise guardians to give more importance to institutional teaching, lessening their dependence on coaching centres.
The government, of course, introduced a law in 2012 to ban the coaching business, which was subsequently revealed in the form of gazettes by the High Court in 2019. It states that no teacher is allowed to give private tuition to students of their own institution.
However, he/she will be able to do the same for students of other institutions, with a maximum of ten students, provided that the students agree to participate. That policy lies in the darkness of the file, as none has ever seen its implementation. The question is who will implement it and how? Only the guardians and students may decide, not the government.
When guardians want coaching centres, they must spring up adjacent to their homes or around educational institutions. What can the government do here? The government can be strict in not awarding marks on mercy in board examinations and in introducing questions that require students to employ their creativity.
Questions must not be traditional as they are now. All students, teachers, and coaching centres are aware of which number corresponds to which questions, and questions must be common if anyone consults two- or three-year board questions. Here lies no newness, no merit test, no real creativity, even though it is claimed.
Avoiding traditional and stereotypical questions and introducing creative, real-world questions can capture students’ attention in class and foster genuine learning.
About the Author
Masum Billah works as a President of the English Teachers' Association of Bangladesh (ETAB), Dhaka, Bangladesh. He previously worked as an Education Specialist at BRAC, an international NGO in Bangladesh.