Thus, while the private tutors concede there is a need for regulating their business, they add that the existing demand for extra coaching from the side of students also calls for a stamp of government sanction.

One view is that like in Andhra Pradesh, coaching classes could be upgraded to ‘professional junior colleges’. This in turn would then also give the government the right to put them under scanner and make them accountable for the quality of education they impart.

“ We are open for a dialogue with the government over framing a policy. We will welcome any move to create a regulating body for coaching classes. Our only concern is that they should talk to us before putting any policy in place. It should not be an one-sided affair,” said Praveen Thakur, president, Professional Teachers Association (PTA).

Out of the 25,000 registered members of PTA across the state, 800 are from Pune. “The business of running coaching classes is similar to any other profession like medicine or law. As we also pay income tax and service tax, we should have a say when it comes to framing a policy,” he added.

Thakur, however, is convinced that teachers who are employed in colleges and schools should not be allowed to teach in coaching classes- one of the major objection raised by the petitioner Bhagvandas Rayyani in the Bombay High Court.

“PTA has clarified its stand on the ‘role of teachers’ in the past. This is an illegal and unethical practice and should be curbed,” Thakur said.

Bindusar Khanade, director of Atharva Classes, also agreed that coaching classes could be converted into professional junior classes. “But instead of focusing on the coaching classes, what the government really needs to do is to make the existing junior colleges accountable,” he said.

He was pointing at the tendency of junior colleges to lose out on teaching days due to the time they allot for extra curricular activities and the large number of government holidays during which they remain shut. Khanade was referring to regular inability of the colleges to complete the syllabus. Professional junior colleges, on the other hand would be able to teach students full time, without falling into this trap, he said, adding that Andhra Pradesh model is worth emulating.

Now, on Wednesday, the petition filed by Rayyani comes up for hearing in the Bombay High Court. Unless the hearing is put off, the entire community that are part and parcel of private coaching classes will be awaiting the verdict.