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Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, July 16: Even as the school education department is in the process of forming a committee to tackle the unholy alliance of college professors and private coaching classes, many college teachers have, in keeping with the recent High Court order, started resigning from tutorials for fear of being pulled up by the authorities.
Prof Vinod Shah (name changed to hide identity) is one such lecturer from a prominent suburban college, who till recently taught at a private tutorial class, where he was paid five times more his humble salary in the college. “I’ve given up the coaching class business, as I know that if anyone gets to know about my activities, the college management will be forced to take action,” Shah said.
According to him, many other teachers in various colleges will also follow suit in the wake of the recent government action against some erring professors in Aurangabad.
A professor from SRSS College of Arts & Commerce in Andheri (East), N N Kulkarni, who strongly opposes coachingclasses, said: “I don’t have exact figures, but many of my teacher friends are in a state of panic now because they secretly teach in coaching classes.”
However, a lecturer from a prominent college in Bandra said he was alarmed on hearing of the court order, but later realised he could still continue teaching in coaching classes. “Some of us will register in the classes under false names, and cheques can be received in the names of our spouses. There’s always a way out, and no one wants to lose earning Rs 50,000 per month,” he remarked. He added that after enjoying such luxury and perks like vacations to Paris and London, it’s difficult to get back to one’s original lifestyle.
The leader of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Vineet Kanchan, feels that apart from strict implementation of rules, it would be effective if erring teachers are publicly humiliated, as they were in Aurangabad. “Students throng coaching classes because they get readymade material, the model answers, which they easily cram to scorehigh marks. Hence schools and colleges take a back seat,” he pointed out.
However, Mumbai University’s senate member Amarjit Manhas feels with introduction of the compulsory 70 per cent attendance rule in all colleges from this year, students won’t find time to attend coaching classes. “Once colleges become more vigilant and check attendance of students as well as teachers, nobody can play truant and attend coaching classes,” he said.
But notwithstanding the stand of the courts and the government, the classes are still running a thriving business. Some of them are already `full’ with regular batches for SSC and HSC.
There are roughly over 700 such tutorials and classes, Chate’s, Bhola’s, Agrawal, Adarsh, and Pinge’s being some of the well-known ones. They charge anything from Rs 10,000 to Rs 70,000 annually.
The Forum For Fairness In Education (FFFIE) hopes for a complete ban on coaching classes in the next High Court hearing of the matter on July 27. The Forum’s president, Bhagvanji Raiyani, said:“We have based our petition on a Supreme Court judgement of 1993 in the case of Unnikrishnan versus the State of Andhra Pradesh, which states that commercialisation of education is not permissible and no person shall be allowed to steal a march over a more meritorious candidate because of his economic power.”
Raiyani, who has started a signature drive on `Ban Coaching Classes’ in various parts of Mumbai, starting with Churchgate station, said he has found cases where middle-class parents have borrowed heavy loans just to admit their children to a popular coaching class. “The craze of seeing their kids as toppers and also front-page ads of coaching classes claiming to churn out toppers year after year has caused this phenomenon,” he said.
But while a section of the teaching community has already gone back to colleges, there are others like Professor Ajay Thakur (name changed), who said he’d rather resign from the college than leave the business of coaching classes. Prof Thakur, who runs a TYBComcoaching class at Borivli, said: “I will resign from college if the management asks me to do so. Why should I leave such a profitable business?”
