'Life is a race' Is it always?
How much do students spend on these coaching classes?
Students spend between Rs 40,000 to Rs 1 lakh on coaching institute fees every year. The annual lodging and boarding expenses go up to Rs 80,000.
The Business of coaching is further described in
the article as such,
“The institutes and related businesses such as hostels,
stationery shops, cyber cafes and photocopiers have spawned an industry with
estimated annual revenue of Rs 1,700 crore. For instance, there are an
estimated 500 private hostels in Indra Vihar and Rajeev Gandhi Nagar localities
alone. Overall, nearly 70 per cent of Kota's economy depends on these
businesses. The lure of some coaching centres is such that students even have
to take an entrance test to join these institutes. In recent years, however,
growing competition among coaching centres has led to simpler entrance tests.
Most institutes admit almost all students who apply as they do not want to lose
revenue. "If we say no to a student, he will take admission at some other
institute," says Pramod Maheshwari, a Kota native and IIT-Delhi alumnus
who founded Career Point in 1993.”
History of Kota
Kota is the third largest city in
Rajasthan and is located about 240 kilometers away from the state capital of
Jaipur. As described on many web portals, Kota’s fame today is driven by the
all India fame of its coaching classes, it is regarded as one of the largest
coaching hubs in India.
Here is a history of the first few
coaching institutes, founder backgrounds and the students that got into the IIT that eventually sparked the
coaching revolution in India.
As described in the Business Today
article
“The foundation of the coaching industry was laid in early
1980s by V.K. Bansal, an engineer at a J.K. Synthetics factory who began his
teaching career by taking math tuitions for local students. Slowly, his
students started clearing the IIT exams. In 1986, Kota came in the IIT
limelight when local boy Sanjeev Arora topped the entrance exam. Bansal says 13
of his students cracked the entrance test in 1990. In the mid-1990s, after the
closure of the J.K. Synthetics factory, several engineers joined Bansal
Classes. Many of them later started their own institutes. One such was B.V.
Rao, who founded Rao Academy. Kota's image got another boost in 1995 when 51
students from the town made it to the IITs. This further attracted aspiring
engineers and teachers.”
Start a Chain – Hire IIT Graduates as Teachers
Many of the coaching institutes go into
the IIT’s for campus placements to hire IIT Graduates. This trend stopped in
2002, when the IIT’s stopped institutes from doing so. But coaching institutes
in Kota still continue to lure teachers to their institutes with promises of a
high initial pay package.
The top teachers from Kota earn
anywhere between Rs 30 lakhs to Rs 60 Lakhs. A Korean education company based
in Kota recently made an offer for over Rs 1 crore annually for a good
professor.
As described in the Business Today
article on Kota titled the Dream Factories in the May 12th, 2013
report, “Such was the euphoria at the
time that coaching centres started hiring IIT graduates as teachers. R.K.
Verma, an IIT Madras alumnus who founded Resonance in 2001, had also initially
joined Bansal Classes. Maheshwari of Career Point recalls recruiting 12 faculty
members through campus placements at IITs in 1997. This trend continued until
2002, when IITs stopped allowing coaching institutes to participate in campus
placements. But hiring was still possible as institutes started putting posters
in hostels and fresh graduates could directly apply. Today, almost 35 per cent
of the coaching fraternity is from the IITs.
Train Them. Get Them into IIT. Then Hire Them. Keep the cycle running. This seems like the mantra.
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