Govt moves to control, regulate coaching centres

As the Supreme Court, through the Ministry of Education’s 2024 Guidelines, has mandated uniform standards for coaching centres across country, focussing on student safety, mental health, and transparency, requiring states to enforce rules, the team of experts is studying the ‘Guidelines for Registration and Regulation of Coaching Center 2024’ by the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education Government of India that will form the basis of the Bill.

“As listed under the Ministry of Education’s 2024 Guidelines, issues related to the private coaching centers in the context of rising student suicides cases, mental health, fire incidents, lack of facilities as well as methodologies of teaching are being looked into,” Mukesh Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary, Education Department, told The Indian Express.

Further, issues such as misleading ads by coaching centres, qualification of tutors, minimum space per student, fire safety compliance, fair fees with refunds, no classes during school hours, and mandatory counselling and grievance redressal, with penalties for violations, are some of the issues that will be covered.

Sources said that similar Bills passed by other states, for instance, the Rajasthan Coaching Centres (Control and Regulation) Bill, 2025, is also being analysed.

The regulation will also enforce registration and regulation in the interests of students and provide them career guidance and psychological counselling for mental well-being to reduce stress among students enrolled in private coaching centres.

In addition to mandatory registration of all coaching centers, issues to be covered like malpractices including advertisement with false claims or offers by coaching centres, refund of fee in case a student leaves in between, teachers serving in any government institute do not engage in teaching in coaching centers, no coaching classes for those students who are also studying in schools during their school hours, so that their regular attendance remains unaffected.

Infrastructure facilities such as minimum area per student, compliance with fire safety norms, well-ventilated building, safe and potable drinking water, and CCTV cameras will also constitute the norms.

“In most of the cases, it is seen that the students are not well apprised about the difficulty of exams, syllabus, level of intensity of preparation and efforts required before enrolling into the curriculum, realities, and difference between preparation of school-level examinations and competitive examination. Also, there should be awareness among students and parents that excessive ambitions may cause mental pressure while there should be no segregation of batches based on the performance of students. For the mental well-being of students, counsellors and experienced psychologists should counsel and provide psychotherapeutic service to students for reducing mental stress and depression,” Mukesh Kumar said.

The state government is also considering imposing a penalty on coaching centres for non-compliance of the rules, once notified. Cancellation of registration and financial penalty are some of the options being looked into, sources said.