The private coaching industry is said to stand at $70 billion in India, opening opportunities for people who want to make a career in this sector, says Minal Anand

Private tuitions have been an integral part of a school-going child’s life in India for years now. It is not just the less-educated parents who send their children for tuitions; studies show that more than 90 per cent of children from all strata are taking tuitions. The mentoring industry in India has been witnessing a record growth of almost 35 per cent in the last five or six years. In 2016, the size of the private coaching industry was $45 billion and was likely to touch $70 billion soon.

In fact, NSSO estimates that one out of every four students in India opt for private tutoring and in States like Tripura and West Bengal, more than 80 per cent of school going students avail such services. The phenomenon is not restricted just to schools, with 20 per cent of students pursuing degree courses and 13 per cent pursuing post graduate courses banking on private tutors for mentoring and coaching.

In other words, the tutoring industry in India is huge. In such a scenario, the recent UNESCO annual Global Education Monitoring Report that censures private tuitions, blaming them for increasing students’ academic burden and stress, comes as a surprise.

A massive 71 million students in India, more than the population of a few countries, use private coaching to supplement basic education being provided in educational institutions. In fact, private tutoring has taken a lead over mainstream education primarily because of the poor standards of teaching in schools.

For students who desire to excel in academics in a country which has a weak education system, it is private tutoring that has been a beacon. Tutors these days are mainly engaged to improve scores and tuitions have become ubiquitous because there have been cases of a rise in grades. Whether we like it or not, it remains a fact that in India, schools these days are more like a meeting ground for young children to spend time with their friends. It is the private tuitions where most children actually get a grip of their curriculum.

In fact, with the education system becoming more and more complex, parents too have been relying on tutors to guide their children. Where a couple of decades ago, students used to learn subtraction and addition in class four or five, today they learn it in class one or two. Schools are also putting a lot of emphasis on extra-curricular activities and teachers are being burdened with additional activities all the time. It has led to most of them facing a lack of time and speeding up the syllabus making it difficult for many students to cope.

It is because of situations like these that parents are turning to the tutoring system for the much-needed support for children to study at their own pace and in a more focussed manner.

Experts say that students and parents prefer private tuitions, even in cases where quality education is on offer, because of the excessive competition. They also point that competition is not a negative aspect as this makes students more focused on studies and their minds remain occupied.

It’s not just home tutoring, online tutoring too is a big thing in India — helping students receive hundred per cent individual attention. Online tutoring goes a step ahead to use technology, in turn making learning more visual, interactive and easier. Some Ed-tech platforms are in fact doing a great job of uplifting the education ecosystem in India and fulfilling the disparity by plugging in teacher-student gaps. Where in regular schools, teachers are unable to give individual attention thanks to a huge difference in the teacher-child ratio, online private tutoring is a great way to achieve individual attention.

The UNESCO report also denounces the time and money allocated to tutoring saying it can undermine student well-being and strain household budgets. But are parents in India really complaining about private tutoring?

With their hectic professional and personal schedules, chances are that they are not! Several parents say they are ill-equipped or lack the time to teach their children on their own and believe that coaching comes handy in this. Money does not pose much of a problem, especially because in India there are tutors available for all kinds of budgets. Some edtech platforms offer a plethora of tutors and the best type of tutors are available to suit different price ranges.

At the end of the day, despite all the denigration – this time from the Paris-based educational, scientific and cultural arm of the UN — the tutorial industry is contributing significantly to the education system in India. It is the mainstay in a student’s life in this country and will continue to thrive and grow manifold.

— The writer is founder-CEO, GuruQ