In Latur, leak casts long shadow, students keep faith in their dreams

There are tens of thousands who flock to Latur every year from districts in rural Maharashtra to prepare for NEET-UG and other engineering entrance tests. Saurabh Chate from Jalna is just one of them, who will appear for the NEET re-test on Sunday afternoon.

Chate chose to continue at Renukai Career Centre (RCC), whose founder Shivraj Motegaonkar was identified by the CBI as one of those allegedly responsible for leaking and circulating question papers for the May 3 NEET exam, which was later cancelled. “I decided to continue at RCC because the teachers supported me throughout my NEET journey, including the additional year I spent preparing for the exam,” he said.

For Shravani Kadam, a student at Vidya Aaradhna Academy, a coaching institute in the city, the cancellation and the announcement of a re-test left her stressed, but it subsided within a few days. “My elder sister, who is now studying medicine, had to take a gap year to score well for admission. She made me realise that my two-month revision pales when compared with her effort of repeating the entire cycle for another full year. Since then, I have focused only on revising and preparing well for the re-test,” she said.

Students are trying their best to get over their frustration, but for the coaching classes in Latur, it hasn’t been the same after the spotlight fell on Latur. Admissions or student enrolments have taken a 30-40 per cent hit during June. Many say it will be a long road ahead in rebuilding trust and regaining lost enrolment.

Hanumant Mundhe from IIB Shree Tutorial, a coaching institute in the city, said, “Growing concerns over intense competition for medical admissions and declining trust in the examination system had already impacted enrolment. While enrolment may have declined by around 20 per cent over the past 3-4 years, it has dropped by more than 30 per cent just this month.”

IIB Shree Tutorial falls along a lane that is home to almost the entire coaching industry in the city. It is buzzing with students, as classes continue in the coaching institutes. But it is not the same, according to those who do business in the area, which is called ‘Udyog Bhavan’ because of the many industry godowns it housed earlier.

“Compared to previous years, the crowd of students on the lane is far less this June,” said Ashok Waghmare, who runs a stationery shop in the same lane. His livelihood depends on the success of the coaching industry. “Time part, it will be good results that will help us regain trust,” said Mundhe, who noted that coaching classes have intensified efforts to help students clear competitive examinations such as NEET and JEE to get students back.

Satish Pawar from Vidya Aradhna Coaching Class says trust is an important factor in the education sector. “Parents send their children to us because they trust us to help them build a better future. It is unfortunate what this scandal has uncovered, including the involvement of paper-setters in leaking question papers. Seeing the alleged involvement of a coaching class has been deeply disturbing. Whatever happened has left a huge mark on my psyche. One cannot imagine its impact on students and parents,” he said.

Coaching classes in the lane do not cater to the crème de la crème students targeted by large corporate coaching institutes. “Many of our students are first-generation learners. They come from interior and rural parts of the state to build a better life than the limited opportunities that farming back home offers. Without trust in the system, parents will think twice before taking admission. That’s why we never talk about ranks; we talk about the number of students who have secured medical and engineering seats after studying with us,” said Pawar.

Latur-based medical and engineering admission consultant Sachin Bangad, says multiple success stories have emerged from the city’s coaching industry, which attracts about 30,000-40,000 students every year. “Almost all students come from underprivileged backgrounds and barely manage to pay fees. Our research has shown that a significant number of students from Latur secure seats in government medical colleges across Maharashtra. In 2025 alone, out of 8,138 students securing seats in the first round of medical admissions across Maharashtra, 1,203 were from Latur. This level of success requires tremendous effort and hard work.”

Poonam Bhale from Baramati, who shifted to Latur two years ago, hopes to be one of them. A student at RCC, she had scored 590 out of 720 in the first NEET-UG 2026 examination. “I was hopeful of securing a seat in a good medical college. But I have had to redo my entire preparation because of the leak, and that too within a very short period. The support of teachers was most important during this time because we had to revise in a short period what we had spent two years preparing for. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the re-exam is not made excessively difficult simply because the earlier paper was leaked,” she said.

The city’s past record continues to get word-of-mouth publicity and aspirants continue to trickle in; like Shubham Garad whose grandfather brought him to Latur, Shrushti K from Dharashiv district decided to shift here in April to prepare for NEET. “I have heard success stories from some of my seniors who came here to prepare for NEET. I also want to take that chance,” she said.