New Delhi: While the management of FIITJEE, one of India’s leading coaching institutes for the engineering Joint Entrance Exam (JEE), is yet to make a public statement on several of its centres shutting down, thousands of anguished students and parents have found themselves in a crisis with exams round the corner.
In North India, the sudden closure of FIITJEE centres amid mass resignations of teachers over unpaid dues has left at least 3,500 students in the lurch. Two FIRs have been lodged against the FIITJEE management, one in Noida and another in Ghaziabad.
The affected students are 11th and 12th graders. The situation is dire because Class 12 students will soon sit for their board exams in end-February or the start of March, while the JEE will likely be held in April-May. JEE coaching institutes help students prepare for their board exams as well.
With several FIITJEE teachers joining the rival Akash Institute, students are feeling the pressure to enroll in other institutes with exams not far away.
“All of this did not happen overnight. The (FIITJEE) institute has been struggling for some time, but in recent days, the situation has become critical,” a teacher who recently resigned from a FIITJEE centre told ThePrint on condition of anonymity. Other staff members ThePrint contacted also alleged that FIITJEE has been grappling with severe financial issues for over a year, to the extent that management even stopped covering teachers’ daily expenses of tea and coffee.
Parents have meanwhile alleged that FIITJEE has misappropriated hundreds of crores in fees, while teachers accuse the institute of exploitative practices.
Many teachers say they have lost their security deposits, a portion of their basic salaries withheld in case they break their three-year contracts by quitting early.
“My Rs 15 lakh is stuck with the institute, and they are not responding to emails. Many other teachers who resigned are also facing the same issue. This is a fraud worth hundreds of crores, but no one seems to be realising it,” alleged the teacher quoted earlier.
ThePrint has reached the FIITJEE management for comment via email, calls and WhatsApp messages. This report will be updated as and when a response is received.
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The 2 FIRs against FIITJEE mgmt
Speaking to ThePrint, Noida Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Ram Badan Singh confirmed that an FIR has been registered against FIITJEE founder Dinesh Kumar Goel and eight others on charges of criminal conspiracy and breach of trust after parents filed a complaint. The Noida centre shut down on Wednesday.
“On Thursday, nearly 150 parents approached Sector 58 police station, filing a complaint that the FIITJEE Noida centre closed without prior notice. Based on their complaint, a case has been registered under Sections 336 (forgery), 316 (criminal breach of trust), 318(4) (cheating), and 61 (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 397 of the Companies Act against nine people, including the owner, management, and directors,” DCP Singh had told media persons earlier.
Police revealed that the centre’s 40-member staff, including teachers and pantry workers, resigned en masse Wednesday and joined a rival coaching institute. “It was reported that FIITJEE Noida had not paid salaries to its staff for the past two months. After receiving increments, they all resigned in a single day. Strict action will also be taken against the teachers,” said Sector 58 police station’s Station House Officer Amit Kumar.
Apart from FIITJEE founder and chairperson Goel, others named in the FIR as Ramesh Batlish (director of FIITJEE Noida), Monila Goel, Partha Halder, Sadhu Ram Bansal, Rushtam Dinshaw Batliwala, Shashikant Dubey, Mohit Sardana, and Anand Raman P, according to the police.
The FIR was lodged on the basis of a complaint filed by a parents’ association representing over 250 parents, which stated: “After taking all the money from parents and promising a bright future for the children, the accused have misappropriated the funds without informing anyone.”
Earlier this month, on 14 January, another FIR was lodged against the FIITJEE management in Ghaziabad after parents complained that no teaching was happening at the centre there.
Ghaziabad DCP Rajesh Kumar told ThePrint: “The district education officer investigated the issue and an FIR was lodged against FIITJEE after that.”
Meanwhile, teachers of the FIITJEE centers that closed down have joined other coaching institutes and are encouraging students to do the same. For instance, teachers from FIITJEE’s Patna centre have joined Sri Chaitanya, while those from Noida and Gurugram centers have joined the Aakash Institute.
One such WhatsApp message from a former staffer of FIITJEE’s Gurugram centre said: “At the Gurugram centre, we haven’t received salaries and other dues for five months in the last calendar year. Despite such a serious problem, we never let it impact our classes. Managing family expenses became increasingly difficult, forcing us to collectively resign from FIITJEE and join Aakash Institute’s newly launched IIT JEE Advanced wing INVICTUS-Advanced Engineering Program at Gurugram. Here, both faculty and students will benefit.”
Parents however are now worrying about the additional expenses of enrolling their children in a different institute. “I had already paid Rs 4 lakh to FIITJEE, and now I’m being forced to pay another Rs 50,000 so my son’s education isn’t disrupted. This is a massive fraud worth hundreds of crores and needs to be investigated,” said Gurugram-based Manish Dagar.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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