Education Ministry issues guidelines for coaching centers

The Education Ministry has issued guidelines for coaching institutes across the country. Under this, now coaching institutes will not be able to give admission to children below 16 years of age. Apart from this, making misleading promises and guaranteeing good marks has also been banned.

These guidelines have been made for coaching centers providing preparation for competitive exams after 12th.

In view of the increasing cases of suicide of students, incidents of fire in classes and lack of facilities in coaching centres, the Education Department has issued these guidelines.

Guidelines fixed for coaching centres:

• A person shall impart coaching or establish, run, manage or maintain a coaching center, only
  with prior registration of such coaching center as per the provisions of the guidelines.
• Tutors with qualifications less than graduate will not be appointed faculty.
• Coaching centers cannot give misleading promises to parents, or guarantee good marks and ranks.
• Coaching cannot enroll students below 16 years of age or the enrollment will be done only after the secondary school examination.
• Teachers guilty of moral crimes will not be appointed as faculty.
• The coaching center will have to give complete information about the qualification of the faculty, duration of course completion, hostel facilities and fees on its website.
• The center will have to pay attention to the mental stress faced by children and there will be no pressure on them for good performance in classes.
• Coaching will have to create a system to help students through emergency or stressful situations.
• An officer will ensure that there is a channel for psychological counseling in the coaching centre.
• Information about the names of psychologists, counselors and their working hours should also be given to all students and parents.
• Tuition fees for different courses should also be fixed and receipts of fees should also be provided.
• If the student has paid full fees for the course and is leaving the course midway, the student must refund the remaining fees within 10 days.
• If the student was staying in the hostel of the coaching centre, then the hostel fee and mess fee should also be refunded.
• Under no circumstances, the course fee will be increased in the middle of the course.
• If the guidelines are not followed, a fine of Rs 25,000 for first offense and Rs 1 lakh for the second offense if the center still does not follow the guidelines then their registration will be revoked.

With the help of these guidelines, the legal framework for the functioning of coaching institutes in the country will be decided.

The government has proposed registration of new and existing coaching centers within 3 months of the implementation of the guidelines. Apart from this, it will be the responsibility of the state government to ensure that all the coaching centers follow the guidelines issued.