Er Umair Ul Umar
It is one of the strangest contradictions of our time. We have some of the most qualified gazetted teachers posted in our higher secondary schools, many of whom draw salaries exceeding one lakh every month, backed by experience, training, and security. Yet students continue to rush toward coaching centres with an urgency that puzzles both policymakers and parents. This paradox speaks of something deeper than mere preference. It exposes the uneasy truth that the system is faltering even when the human resources are strong.
What makes this trend more astonishing is the financial burden it places on families. Even poor households, who struggle to manage basic needs, willingly take loans and borrow money to send their children to private coaching. They sacrifice comfort, sometimes even essentials, believing that coaching centres are gateways to success. And all this happens while their children simultaneously have access to free education provided by schools that house some of the finest government-recruited faculty in the region.
The contrast is sharp, almost unsettling. Government institutions offer everything that coaching centres lack. Schools have proper buildings, spacious classrooms, furniture, heating arrangements for the winter, clean drinking water, qualified teachers, well-maintained laboratories, sports facilities and even transportation support in many areas. On the other hand, coaching centres often run in congested rooms without sufficient seating, with no heating in freezing temperatures, no ventilation, inadequate sanitation and no transport arrangements. Students sit squeezed on benches for hours. Yet the crowd grows every year. The question naturally arises: who compels these students to go there when government schools provide every facility with comfort and dignity
The answer, unfortunately, lies not in infrastructure but in perception and performance. Students feel that coaching centres give them a sense of purpose. They believe they get clarity, speed, targeted notes and examination-focused mentorship. Even when the environment is uncomfortable, they feel academically engaged. Many believe that private tutors explain concepts in a sharper, more relatable manner and dedicate their entire attention to exam outcomes. This perception does not grow on its own. It is shaped by experiences, peer influence and the undeniable fact that coaching teachers often work under constant competitive pressure.
Coaching centres operate in a survival mode. A teacher is judged every season. If his teaching fails to produce results, he is replaced with someone better. This constant vigilance pushes him to remain alert, updated and adaptive. He studies examination patterns, analyses question trends, experiments with new methods, produces fresh material and sharpens his delivery because his future depends on it. That sense of competition creates an electricity in the classroom which students immediately feel. Every class becomes a performance. Every lesson becomes a challenge.
Government teachers, on the other hand, often do not get the space or the system that encourages them to operate with the same intensity. With a guaranteed salary at the end of the month, the survival instinct fades away, and a comfort zone quietly develops. It is not always the teacher’s fault. They are burdened with clerical duties, surveys, data collection, administrative tasks, non-teaching assignments, election duty, midday meal responsibilities and numerous other engagements that drain their creativity. A talented teacher who should be preparing innovative lessons ends up filling registers and compiling reports. When the system demands everything except teaching, even brilliant teachers lose their spark.
Professional updating is another concern. Many government teachers do not regularly challenge themselves with new methods or exam trends. They rely on old notes, old ways and outdated references. Meanwhile, coaching faculty remain restless because they have no choice. A single misstep can throw them out of the competition. That restlessness becomes a source of excellence. This is the very spirit that needs to be awakened in the public system. Not through fear, but through purpose and accountability.
Another dimension is the examination culture itself. School syllabi and assessments often fail to connect with the demands of national-level competitive examinations. Students realise that while schools teach broadly, coaching centres teach with laser focus. This creates an impression that schools are good for attendance but not enough for ambition. That perception must be corrected through systemic reform, not through criticism of coaching institutes alone. We also ignore the fact that many government laboratories are among the best equipped in the region. They have modern apparatus, computers, scientific instruments and digital tools that coaching centres do not even dream of. Yet students prefer the institute that does not even have a lab. This shows that the issue is not resources but the oxygen of learning. Where a student feels alive intellectually, he goes there, even if the room is suffocating. That intellectual spark is what government schools need to reignite.
The government is indeed investing enormous amounts of money in its teachers, infrastructure and educational facilities, aiming to create strong institutions. But without mechanisms that reward quality teaching, encourage innovation, support professional growth and reduce administrative overload, the system will continue to underperform. Teachers must feel that their excellence matters. They must feel that they are not merely employees but academic leaders shaping the next generation.
The fault, therefore, is not in the teachers alone, nor in the students or the coaching centres. It lies in a system that has not yet aligned talent, time, accountability and ambition. When we finally create an environment where a teacher in a government school feels the same intellectual energy as a teacher in a coaching room, students will naturally return to the place where dignity and comfort already exist.
Until then, even the coldest coaching room will feel warmer to a student than the warmest school classroom that lacks engagement.
um***********@***il.com