The tragedy in which three UPSC aspirants lost their lives due to flooding in a New Delhi coaching centre, has raised questions over the safety and legality of tuition classes in Ahmedabad. 

According to a recent estimate, the city has 5,000 tuition centres operating out of cramped complexes and basements without proper permits or adherence to safety standards. Despite regulations requiring eight square feet of space per student to ensure adequate oxygen, many tuition centres disregard these guidelines.

Who’s to blame?

An official from the education department noted that campaigns against illegal tuition centres are launched periodically but that parents support these classes by sending their children to study there. 

“Campaigns are launched at the mass level when the government pressures us, but parents are equally responsible for maintaining this system,” the official said. 

Notably, the government seems to crack down on illegal private tutors roughly once every decade. The most recent action took place when Anandiben Patel was chief minister; the one before that, when Keshubhai Patel was CM. 

Tradition with a twist

Private tutors are not illegal per se. And they certainly aren’t new. There is a long tradition of students needing special attention to supplement school learning, and teachers — usually unemployed BEd graduates — filling this gap. 

Today, however, schoolteachers are often forced to supplement meagre incomes from their day job with private classes. This means parents have to shell out tuition fees of up to ₹1,000 per subject per month for primary school students and ₹1,500 per subject per month for high school students, on top of already high school fees.  

According to one schoolteacher who runs a “coaching class”, hers is one of about 3,000 such centres in Ahmedabad. Naranpura, Maninagar, Bapunagar, Ranip, Paldi, Satellite, and Vadaj areas account for the bulk of such centres in the city, she added.

Adding to the complexity of the issue is the large number of engineering graduates in the private tuition business. 

As these tuition classes operate without legal recognition, they are not subject to the same regulatory oversight as, say, schools. Without proper certification and standards, they cannot be penalised for the quality of “coaching” education or lack of safety protocols. 

The situation underscores the urgent need for a comprehensive approach to address the proliferation of unregulated tuition centres. Or else, tragedies like the New Delhi flooding and or the Takshashila fire of May 2019 — which cost 22 students their lives in Surat — will only repeat themselves. 

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