Coaching or Schooling? What Are We Really Preparing Our Children For?
- Prof. Harsh Vardhan Jajoo
- May 17
- 2 min read
Updated: May 17
After years of working closely with industries and now stepping into the world of higher education, I find myself looking at the Indian education system with new eyes. And what I see worries me.
Every year, lakhs of students in India pour their energy, time, and youth into preparing for competitive exams like the IIT-JEE. They attend coaching centres that promise success, glory, and future-proof careers. But as someone who now leads a young higher education institute — NSBT — I must ask: At what cost?
We have built an entire ecosystem where schools have become a formality, and coaching institutes have become the real education providers. Students attend school only to maintain attendance or submit board exam forms. Their intellectual and emotional development is outsourced to private coaching machines that run long hours, sometimes from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Their life outside textbooks — creativity, emotional intelligence, social interaction, and a sense of curiosity — is quietly suffocated.
Parents are spending not just money, but hope and years of their child’s life chasing a brand name — often without pausing to ask: Is this really education?
What’s worse, this system thrives on fear — fear of falling behind, fear of not being accepted into a top institute, fear of 'wasting' potential. Coaching centres have become billion-dollar industries, many operating with a factory-like intensity. And in the race for ranks, the human behind the student is often forgotten.
This is not a criticism of students who clear these exams — many are bright and hardworking. Nor is this about undermining IITs or top institutions. But it is about questioning a system where genuine learning is replaced by relentless training, and where students are robbed of the time and space to understand who they are.
Parents, ask yourself:
When was the last time your child read something out of curiosity, not for marks?
When was the last time they created something — not memorised it?
When did they last express their opinion — and were truly heard?
This is not just about education. It’s about what kind of future we are building — and for whom.
In Part 2, we’ll examine how this intense coaching culture compares with international systems like UC Berkeley — and what we can learn from them.
