Coaching centres witness sharp drop in outstation admissions

Nagpur: Coaching classes across the city have witnessed a sharp drop in garnering outstation students even though online classes are being held regularly. The drop in admissions varies greatly from institute to institute, but for some there has been a fall of over 90%. On an average, the bigger institutes have witnessed a 75% drop in outstation admissions.
Students from nearby districts would flock to Nagpur for undergoing JEE/NEET coaching, but due to lockdown this has not happened. “Even introduction of online classes have not been able to bring back as many students,” said Rajnikanth Bondre, president of Association of Coaching Institutes. “Reason mainly for that is poor net connectivity in non-urban areas. The feedback we are getting is that parents want to wait till the vaccine is out before confirming admissions,” said Bondre.
Sameer Pale, treasurer of ACI said that parents, too, are aware that this is a temporary phase. “Holding back on online classes is also because parents know that eventually offline classes will resume,” said Pale. He added that less that a quarter of outstation admissions have been wrapped up in the well known institutes.
But outstation students are apparently not enrolling in their local institutes either for online classes or committing to join whenever offline classes resume. Outside the city too, things are not looking good for coaching institutes. Shegaon’s coaching institute owner Yogesh Sharma said, “It’s a gloomy situation for all. Less than 10% admissions as compared to last year are getting confirmed. The apathy towards online classes is not only related to technical issues, but also economics.” He elaborated that buying a separate set up, topping up data etc is a cost which has to be spent upfront. “This on top of the coaching institute fee is obviously something parents are not convinced about,” said Sharma.