Post Surat fire, plea in SC seeks curbs on coaching institutes

Petitioner contends that the mushrooming of coaching classes had led to a “parallel education system”.

The petition filed by advocate Pawan Prakash Pathak comes in the wake of the tragedy at Surat in Gujarat (picture) where 22 students lost their lives in a fire at a coaching institute. File photo

A petition in the Supreme Court has sought a direction to the Union government to regularise private coaching institutes by laying down regulations to provide for minimum standards for their operation.

The petition filed by advocate Pawan Prakash Pathak follows the death of 22 students in a fire at a coaching institute in Surat.

It sought to protect the fundamental right of students by framing a guideline or passing directions to the department concerned to look after the safety measures that needed to be adopted by these coaching institutes.

The petitioner contended that the mushrooming of coaching classes had led to a “parallel education system.”

These institutes largely remained unregularised and were not governed by any rules or statutes. The regularisation of private institutes and aspects such as basic facilities, fees and safety measures would have to be in consonance with the guidelines, the plea said.

“There will be initial resistance to all the new regulations, curtailing the freedom that coaching classes are used to up to the present but after the initial teething troubles, the petitioner is of view that regularization of coaching classes will create a better scenario for the students, their parents and the those who run the coaching classes,” it said.

With increasing peer pressure, a majority of students were forced to rely on private tuitions besides attending schools. Over 86% of parents think that they were ill-equipped or lacked time to teach their children on their own and here’s where coaching classes come handy according to various reports and newspaper cuttings. The statistics revealed that the middle-class parents had been spending 1/3rd of their monthly income on their wards’ private tuitions, the petition noted.

It quoted ASSOCHAM’s figures to say that “a whopping number of close to 87% of primary school children and up to 95% of the higher secondary attend private coaching classes.”

The petition said the institutes fell within the ambit of performing a public function under Article 12 of the Constitution.