As Gujarat fiddles with files, other states proactive with tuition-class regulations

AHMEDABAD: Neighbouring Maharashtra is in the final stages of enacting a law for coaching institutes, while Tamil Nadu government, following a high court ruling, has banned private schools from tying up with coaching classes to charge higher fees. But Gujarat is almost clueless about the numbers of tuition classes or whether they operate out of safe buildings. Coaching centres are a reality and students today spend their maximum time preparing for competitive exams.
“Maharashtra’s Private Tuitions (Regulation) Bill, 2018 differentiates between home and private tuition units and even fixes their student intake and has regulation over fees charged. The proposed law also has regulations on building structures, parking space and a 14-member committee,” said a senior urban development official.
Tamil Nadu high court in July last year had directed the state government to ensure that private schools do not tie up with coaching centres and ask children to cough up fees.
Gujarat education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, who had earlier claimed that a new law will be brought in place to regulate tuition classes said, “No decision has been taken to bring about any law for registration and regulation of tuition classes. There are several technical issues, however, now we are planning to resolve it as soon as possible.”
“In a majority of the 2,119 coaching institutes, we inspected over last two days in Ahmedabad, we found classes operating from dingy spaces with single stairs and in congested areas,” admitted a senior Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation official.
“TSurat building should have had two staircases in opposite directions. Due to the lack of ventilation people were compelled to jump,” said Kanhaiyalal P Motwani, Principal, College of Safety and Fire Technology.