As competition puffs up for admission in professional courses after school, the students and parents increasingly look to coaching as a secure option. The small hill state of Himachal Pradesh (HP) is no exception.

Not only that the trend of ‘dummy admissions’ in coaching academies in HP towns is now catching up for students in Class XI or XII, tuition classes after school hours or weekends in professional coaching institutes have become a routine at all levels.

Mainly, those pursuing science streams after Class X are the ones to go for ‘dummy admissions’, wherein some schools give them admissions officially, but the students attend coaching classes in other institutions.

In the event of this facilitation, the students end up paying double fees-in school and simultaneously in coaching institutes for the same period.”What should the students do? There is so much of competition and the schools are unable to teach them in line with entrance exams.

The students who don’t take tuitions in routine have to drop out after XII to prepare for tough medical or engineering exams. This wastes their time,” said a cross section of parents in Shimla.

The parents said they were however, relieved as earlier they had to send their children out of state for such professional coaching. “Now we have this facility at our doorstep. There are so many coaching institutes in main towns of Himachal like Shimla, Dharamshala, Hamirpur and Mandi,” they added.

The ‘dummy admissions’ have undoubtedly circumvented the education scenario for XI and XII standard students right under the nose of the authorities.
All this is attributed to increasing competition due to rise in number of applicants in entrance exams, the changed aspirations, crumbled teaching in schools and the so called success rate of coaching institutes.

“I decided not to go for dummy admission for it was unethical. I wanted to strengthen my base through school teaching, before I could really prepare for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for MBBS course with full confidence.

The coaching institutes only teach you competitive and tell you smart work, often without basic understanding,” said an 18-year-old girl.”But then I had to pay the price. I couldn’t get through in first attempt and have since dropped one year after clearing XII to do full time coaching for better performance,” she hastened to add.

Surprisingly, the tuition culture has caught up in HP in primary and elementary levels too. Most of the parents are sending their wards to coaching institutes for regular tuitions from junior classes, just to make them disciplined learners. Time constraint (for working parents) and the inability to address to the fast changing school syllabi also necessitates children to join coaching early.