Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru) Dwindling student admissions in the wake of the 13-months closure of education institutions nationwide to check the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic have sounded a death knell for the state’s estimated 10,000 brick-and-mortar private tutorial centres offering supplementary tutorials, aka coaching, to secondary students preparing for school-leaving board exams and professional education entrance tests. While established national tutorial chains such as Byjus, Aakash, FIITJEE and TIME have successfully switched to online mentoring, smaller proprietorial tutorial centres have not been able to make this switch effectively. With parents succumbing to the intensive advertising of heavyweight tutorial chains promising seamless online classes, many neighbourhood tutorial centres have slumped into bankruptcy. Usually in April-May, before the start of the academic year in June, private tutorial centres in the state — especially its admin capital Bengaluru — are abuzz with parents and students queuing up for admission. This year, there is an estimated 30-40 percent decline in applications. With the national CBSE and CISCE boards canceling class X and class XII board exams, and professional entrance exams such as NEET, IIT-JEE and CET postponed indefinitely in anticipation of a third wave of the pandemic, parents and students are adopting a wait and watch approach. Usually in April-May, before the start of the academic year in June, private tutorial centres in the state — especially its admin capital Bengaluru — are abuzz with parents and students queuing up for admission. This year, there is an estimated 30-40 percent decline in applications. With the national CBSE and CISCE boards canceling class X and class XII board exams, and professional entrance exams such as NEET, IIT-JEE and CET postponed indefinitely in anticipation of a third wave of the pandemic, parents and students are adopting a wait and watch approach. “Since March 2020, private coaching centres in the state have been shut, opening briefly during November-February. With the state in a lockdown since April, a majority of them have reported a heavy decline in student registrations. Over the past year with schools and the government cancelling exams, parents and students have not taken studies seriously. A majority of parents assume that next year will be more of the same and students will be passed without writing board exams. We tried to make a switch to online tutoring. But the response from parents and students is not encouraging. They are reluctant to pay full fees for online classes. We have had to offer fee rebates even though we have invested substantially in digital infrastructure and teacher training to provide online education,” says Rajeev Ranjan, founder of Brilliant Academy, a private tutorials chain in Bengaluru. Moreover with intermittent state government-mandated lockdowns of business and industry resulting in job losses and/or falling household incomes, parents are unwilling to pay private school tuition and supplementary tuition fees in addition. According to Harish Kumar S, a teacher at Aspire Tutorials, Bengaluru which coaches students for junior college (class XI-XII) exams and the state CET (Common Entrance Test), middle and lower…
