Already 40 days have passed and now the matter will come up for hearing on March 5. The Indian Express looks at the various facets of this parallel education system in a series beginning today.

Going to school can be costly. Especially if you are in class 10,11 and 12 and feel the need to go for coaching classes in a bid to face the dreaded board examinations and then of course, the common entrance tests (CET). Catering to this category in the city are 1,500 coaching classes with a combined annual turnover of over Rs 150 crore, 30 established tuition centres alone accounting for Rs 90 crore.

Coaching classes have in fact become a parallel education system and are growing steadily in strength. Says Bhagvandas Rayyani, whose petition led to the court’s intervention, “The rulebook says teachers who teach in schools and colleges are not allowed to teach in coaching classes — a rule that is regularly flouted.”

According to an estimate, around 1.5 lakh students in the state appear for CET go for the coaching classes, of this at least 50,000 being from Pune.

“It is a fact that the teachers in colleges not even cover the portion,” says Nabha Kothadia, a student, who did not go for any coaching class till after class 10. “I went for a small group by paying a little more as I did not want to study at a place that had as many students as in my college,” she says.

“In 1999, according to the orders of Supreme Court, the state government conducted the first CET for engineering and medical admissions,” recalls B G Kalbhor, an IITian and director of Brilliant’s Academy. “It needs expertise to take CET classes as it is not about giving notes and then asking students to mug up,” he says.

According to D S Deshpande, proprietor of D S Deshpande Chemistry Academy, it is competition that is driving the students. “Though there are many career options for students these days, the parents still prefer the traditional surefire bets like engineering and medicine,” he says.

There are four major IIT-JEE classes in the city. “Around 3,000 students from Pune appear every year and they have no option but to go for the coaching classes,” says Durgesh Mangeshkar of ‘IITians Training Centre.’

But it is not all hunky-dory. Kalbhor admits that coaching classes cannot impart the ability to think independently. “The students want readymade answers. Even if we try to explain some concept, they tell us not to do that. Students come for coaching classes to score marks. But the exams like CET do not test what you remember, but how you think,” points out Kalbhor.