Bhubaneswar: Amidst the controversy surrounding the coaching centres operating without legal permission in the country, Odisha Parents’ Federation (OPF) Monday wrote a letter to Higher Education Minister Suryabanshi Suraj calling for stringent action against such centres functioning in the state in an unregulated manner. In the letter, OPF president Basudev Bhatt said, “OPF would like to bring to your notice that several coaching centres are being run without government permission throughout the state and there is no proper mechanism to regulate them.” “The coaching centres offering classes to students above 18 years are fleecing parents by charging exorbitant fees without knowledge of the higher education department.
As a result, parents are incurring huge financial loss,” he said. Talking about the modus operandi of such coaching centres, Bhatt said, “To get a maximum number of students, these centres put up large hoardings and publish full-page advertisements in newspapers. Not only this, they publish fake photos of students by claiming that they studied in their classes and passed with flying colours. “Through regular advertisements in newspapers and on TVs, they try to influence parents to send their wards to their coaching centres,” he said. Bhatt said there are no rules and regulations to put a check on these centres.
However, Union Ministry of Education recently issued one guideline for the regulation of coaching centres, he added. He cited several examples wherein many parents complained of harassment by coaching centres which cheated students by providing poor standard of education and charging excess money. In many cases, such coaching centres destroyed the career of students, he claimed. “Students from Class X and XII join coaching for various competitive and entrance examinations. In the process, they lose touch with regular classes.
By the time they finish coaching, their presence percentage drops sharply in regular classes. Many students thus cannot appear for their college examination,” Bhatt said. “We therefore request the government authorities to take appropriate measures to address the issue and stop violation of parents’ rights by formulating clear guidelines for private coaching centres,” he concluded.
ARINDAM GANGULY, OP
