Admn plans to regulate coaching centres in city

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 2

The Chandigarh Administration is mulling over formulating a policy to regulate coaching centres in the city. The first meeting in this regard was held yesterday with all stakeholders of the UT Education Department, confirmed Director of School Education (DSE) Rubinderjit Brar.

The move is in line with the directions of the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) to all states to form a regulatory mechanism for private coaching centres. The department will now begin collecting information about private coaching institutes, including the number of such centres in the city, fees charged by the institutes and students enrolled in each coaching centre.

The committee discussed developing a mechanism to keep a check on exorbitant fees charged by these centres and refund of fees to students.

According to sources, coaching centres being run on school premises will also be regulated by the Education Department. It has been noted that some affiliated schools are organising “integrated school programmes” that teach both CBSE syllabus and prepare students for various entrance examinations.

However, running these types of programmes with any nomenclature, for commercial purpose violates the basic spirit of the affiliation bylaws. In 2017 as well, the HRD Ministry had written to the states asking them to regulate private coaching institutions with 12 suggestions.

The measures suggested by the ministry included setting up counselling centres having professionally trained counsellors, evolving a mechanism where students can appeal, establishing a local guardian system for outstation students, setting up a grievance redressal committee and a strong induction programme for better acclimatisation.