Sanjeev Sanyal Raises Alarm Over Growing ‘Coaching Class Mafia’ in India’s Education System
New Delhi – Sanjeev Sanyal, an influential economist and member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), has recently provoked a new national debate around his scathing critique of what he labels the coaching class mafia a coaching-tutorial informal learning sector that he believes is overtaking India and distorting the learning ecosystem to establish a duplicating shadow education system with long-term perilous repercussions.
Over several social media updates and public statements, Sanyal has been alarm bells about the emergent popularity of coaching institutions, and more so, institutions that operate on the competitive exams like IIT- JEE, NEET, andthe UPSC Civil Services. His argument was that these centres not only have made a mockery of the dreams of millions of students but also made an unhealthy and unsustainable paradigm of academic accomplishments.
A Growing Parallel Industry
However, a Private coaching establishment has long been dominating the competitive examination culture here in India. They are tutoring centres in small towns and big educational towns such as Kota and they offer guaranteed success as long as you pay a fee. Throughout the last twenty years, this parallel economy has exploded into a multi-billion-rupee industry, which, for the most part, is poorly regulated.
Sanyal believes this unregulated growth has led to a deeply flawed system.
“These coaching class mafias have become powerful gatekeepers. The education system should nurture talent and curiosity, not merely reward rote learning and regurgitation,” he wrote in a recent post.
The ‘Coaching Trap’: Opportunity or Exploitation?
Coaching is practically unavoidable to several Indian students, particularly those who aspire to attend top academic organizations like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) or the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). To get their child admissions to the top coaching centre, parents earnestly spend lakhs of rupees including going into debts.
Although there is no denying the fact that these institutions aided students in passing challenging entrance exams, critics claim that these institutions promote:
- Overworking in school
- Too much schoolwork
- Mental health poor outcomes
- Affordability inequality of access
- Learning culture which is rote based instead of being conceptual
These issues are highlighted by Sanyal who asks the policymakers to reconsider this reliance.
Kota: The Coaching Capital and a Case in Point
Kota, the city of Rajasthan, which is commonly referred to as the Coaching Capital of India, has become representative of this issue. Over 200,000 students all over the country move to Kota every year to undertake coaching on engineering and medical entrance exams.
Nonetheless, there is a blemish in this academic pressure cooker. The city had witnessed more than 25 student suicides in the year 2023 alone which were maximum in recent years. Majority of them were accredited to the endless pressure to deliver, loneliness and inability to perform according to expectation which was not realistic.
Although it is pushed by the coach giants, Sanyal and most educationists say that this cannot be sustained and it is not healthy at all.
An Unleveled Playing Field
Among the main messages of Sanyal criticism is the growing inequality of access to education. Children with urban, upper-middle-class backgrounds are usually in a position to afford elite coaching, both, financially and socially. Conversely, rural or poor students on the other hand cannot keep up with those in a level playing field.
This inequality undermines the very idea of a meritocratic system, Sanyal argues.
“How can we call it merit when the system favours those who can afford ₹2–3 lakh per year coaching? It’s not a level field. We must rethink what merit really means,” he said during a panel discussion on education reform.
Root of the Problem: Pernicious Exam-Based Systems
Whereas the coaching centres are making out of it, countless others feel that the entire education system (with the emphasis laid on exams) is at fault.
Competitive entrance examinations such as the JEE and NEET have a selection percentage of less than 1 to 2 per cent. Opponents complain that the format of these tests encourages speed and memorization rather than knowledge and originality. Due to this, coaching institutes aim at cracking the exam and not actual learning.
In Sanyal-opinion, the first step to breaking the coaching mafia will be to reform these entrance exams and also stop the over-dependence on them.
Government Response and Policy Push
The problem as it has been pointed out by Sanjeev Sanyal has attracted the attention of the policymakers and education officials. Already, the Ministry of Education has proposed to control coaching centres and the areas of concern are:
- Coaching institutions registration made compulsory
- Student teacher ratio guidelines
- Mental health support and counseling measures
- Responses to fraudulent commercials where people supposedly would be sure of success
States like Rajasthan and Maharashtra have also initiated localized interventions, including regular inspections and student well-being frameworks. However, experts believe that mere regulation is not enough.
The Way Forward: Strengthening Formal Education
According to Sanyal and other professionals, their multi-pronged approach will help the situation with the increasing dependence on the services of a private coach:
1. Reform School Curriculum
Adjust school curriculum to critical thinking and analytical thinking and not rote based board pattern.
2. Empower Teachers
Train teachers and provide modern tools and strategies to the public schools to minimize the need in outside coaching.
3. Diversify Assessments
Get rid of one shot examinations and switch to models of continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) which evaluates student in the long term and on various parameters.
4. Equitable Access
Implement specific targeted scholarships, web-based education resources, and mentorship programs to make sure that students who live in the rural or disadvantaged environments will be able to compete on a level playing field.
Voices from the Ground
These words by Sanyal have elicited controversy in the academic sphere, media, and even among the students on their own. Some have applauded him as blowing the whistle on an awkward use, as well as a keen difference between other people but on the other hand, I reckon others accompanying that a lot of gaps are filled by coaching centres that the formal education system has missed.
“I agree with his concerns, but until school education improves significantly, coaching is the only practical option for most aspirants,” said Ankita Verma, a NEET aspirant from Patna.
Meanwhile, some coaching centre owners have defended their role, claiming they only respond to market demand.
Conclusion: Time for a National Rethink
Sanjeev Sanyal has broken ranks by noting honestly the existence of a coaching class mafia and has highlighted a major fault line that runs through the education system in India. It is time to discuss the issue on a wider scale both in terms of the community and in terms of policy framework because millions of students find themselves in a vicious triumvirate of pressure, performance, and inequality.
With the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, to help India turn in to a global knowledge super power, how to ensure that the formal education is turned powerful enough so that coaching is no longer a necessity, but a luxury. Once the system cannot correct itself, the price is going to be paid not only in the currency of rupees, but also of shattered dreams and wasted potential.