DC allows coaching centres to hold morning classes until board exams

At a meeting with representatives of coaching institutes, the DC said that they could hold morning classes only for students who had passed out from class XII, or were enrolled with the National Institute of Open Learning.

The relief for coaching institutes, students and parents came five days after the DC had imposed restrictions under Section 144 for CrPC, disallowing the institutes from holding classes during school hours. He had blamed the coaching institutes for encouraging dummy schools, where mandatory 75% attendance of students was not necessary.

It was also stated that the measure was necessary for the students’ safety. Most of the students who were recently targetted by an extortion gang had been first approached by the gang members while they were visiting coaching institutes where security was lax, it was alleged. After the meeting, Shayin said that the restrictions under Section 144 CrPC had not been removed, “but coaching institutes can resume classes for the time being as students have to prepare for the board examination. From the next session, there will be a strict check on schools and the coaching institutes.”

He added, “We have given the coaching institutes15 days time to prepare a mechanism to adjust the students in the evening classes. They will have to maintain a record of the students studying with them in any particular batch, while the attendance in schools will be tracked online.”

Pushkar Rai, centre head of Allen Institute, said, “We appreciate the concern of DC for the safety and security of students. We agreed on dissuading school-going students from attending coaching classes during school time.

“He told us to resume classes  as the time is important for preparations for the board exams and the schools have stopped classes.”

Arvind Goyal, who takes biology classes for classes XI and XII, informed,  “As per the guidelines issued by the DC, we can have classes at any time on a holiday or during summer or winter vacation, but on other days there will be no classes during school hours, except for the droppers batch.”

At the meeting, Shayin asked coaching centres to regularly share the attendance record of students with their parents, maintain a record of visitors and no student should be allowed to come to the institute on a vehicle without a driving licence.