New Delhi: The Centre’s GST collection from coaching centres has grown nearly 150 percent to Rs 5,517.45 crore in 2023-24 from Rs 2,240.73 crore in 2019-20, the Ministry of Education has informed the Rajya Sabha.
The Department of Higher Education, in its reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, cited data provided by the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance.
There was a slight decrease in the GST collected from coaching centres in 2020-21, to Rs 2,215.24 crore, but it increased significantly in the subsequent years, reaching Rs 3,045.12 crore in 2021-22 and Rs 4,667.03 crore in 2022-23.
In total, the government has collected Rs 17,685.57 crore in the last five years.
The question, posed by Congress MP Jebi Mather Hisham, was answered on 24 July. Merely days after that, three students drowned in a flooded basement of an IAS coaching institute in Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar. The space was being used as a library even though it only had permission for parking and storage.
The Delhi government has since sealed nearly 30 basements of similar coaching centres, which had all allegedly flouted rules.
The MP also asked whether any significant measures had been adopted to reduce students’ dependence on private tuition and coaching centres, and the details and outcomes of these measures. She wanted to know the current market revenue of the coaching industry for competitive exams, and whether the government had compiled state-wise data on leading coaching centres.
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In his response, Sukanta Majumdar, minister of state in the Ministry of Education, highlighted several initiatives, such as the National Education Policy (NEP), which includes recommendations to improve the quality of education and reduce the need for private coaching.
Additionally, he pointed to the PARAKH initiative (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development), launched to set standards for student assessments across all school boards in India, as well as the SATHEE platform to provide high-quality content for competitive exams like JEE and NEET, along with an online assessment module for students.
Majumdar also highlighted the “growth in the number of unregulated private coaching centres” in the country, pointing out the “absence of any established policy or regulation”. He noted issues such as exorbitant fees, undue stress on students leading to suicides, and malpractices. To address these concerns, the Ministry of Education had circulated a set of proposed guidelines for the regulation of coaching centres to states and UTs on 16 January, 2024, recommending the creation of an appropriate legal framework, he said.
Since the tragic deaths of the three UPSC aspirants in Delhi, there have been various discussions on coaching centres in Parliament.
In another instance Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP K.R.N. Rajeshkumar asked similar questions in the Rajya Sabha regarding the regulation of coaching institutes. He enquired whether the government was aware of the excessive fees charged for school students taking National Testing Agency (NTA) exams, the disproportionate impact on students from weaker backgrounds, and whether coaching affected conventional school education.
Majumdar’s response, also issued on 24 July and consistent with the one provided to Hashim, highlighted the government’s initiatives while acknowledging that the government was aware of the issues raised by Rajeshkumar.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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