The Ministry of Education has established a high-level 9-member committee to scrutinise the growing reliance on private coaching centres over formal education.
Headed by Higher Education Secretary Vineet Joshi, the panel will probe the widespread phenomenon of “dummy schools,” where students are enrolled on paper but spend their time in coaching hubs.
This move follows rising concerns about academic pressure, questionable advertising by coaching institutes, and a troubling wave of stress-related incidents among students. The committee will review how coaching centres market success stories, often sidelining the broader developmental role of schools.
The panel also aims to assess whether school education currently equips students with critical skills like logical reasoning and creativity, or merely prepares them for rote-based entrance exam success. Particular attention will be paid to the aggressive competitiveness of exams such as NEET and JEE, which often push families toward costly external coaching.
Further, the committee will study the lack of comprehensive career guidance in schools and whether it inadvertently funnels students into a narrow band of “popular” professions.
Officials say the recommendations from this panel could help the government enhance school curricula, establish fairer exam frameworks, and ultimately reduce unhealthy academic pressures on India’s youth.
