The Supreme Court of India has said that parents, not the institutions, put excessive pressure on students to perform well in competitive exams. On Monday, the Supreme Court said that blaming the mushrooming of coaching institutes for the increased suicides among students, particularly in Kota, was incorrect since it was the high expectations placed by parents in a competitive surrounding that drives youngsters to end their lives.
According to Hindustan Times, a panel led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna refused to hear a petition seeking regulation of private coaching schools and a statute establishing minimum criteria for them, saying, “The problem is of parents and not of coaching institutes.”
The bench, which also included Justice SVN Bhatti, expressed awareness of the nearly 24 suicides that have been reported in the Kota district of Rajasthan in 2023, where the number of institutions providing engineering and medical coaching for students enrolled in school has increased. The bench stated, “Suicides are not happening because of the coaching institutes. They happen because the children cannot meet the expectations of their parents. The number of deaths could be much higher,” as quoted by HT.
A Mumbai-based doctor named Aniruddha Narayan Malpani filed a public interest litigation (PIL) accusing coaching centres of pushing students to the brink of death by treating them like “commodities” to further their financial interests. According to the petition, which was argued by advocate Mohini Priya, while suicides in Kota have made news, the situation is prevalent in other private coaching schools, and no rule or regulation is holding them accountable.
The court has advised the petitioner to either approach the Rajasthan High Court, given the suicide occurrences stated in the petition, which mostly involved Kota, or to make a complaint to the Union Government. Meanwhile, advocate Mohini Priya requested that the petition be withdrawn, noting that the petitioner would prefer moving a representation, which the court granted.
The Rajasthan government recently presented the Rajasthan Coaching Institutes (Control and Regulation) Bill, 2023, as well as the Rajasthan Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority Bill, 2023, to manage and regulate the operation of private coaching institutes or schools. Both these bills are yet to be passed.
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