In India, the onset of adolescence is like the ticking of the countdown clock to the fiercely competitive "college entrance examination". The Indian college entrance examination, as an important pathway for ordinary people to rise, is fiercely competitive beyond imagination, and candidates are trapped in deep "internal competition", which has given rise to an extremely developed education and training industry. Kota in Rajasthan is even mocked as the "capital of cram schools". Nowadays, the "internal competition" among Indian students has reached a new height, with many students giving up formal secondary education and devoting themselves to full-time tutoring classes, solely focused on "solving problems" in order to get into prestigious universities.
The crazy breeding of tutoring culture under competitive pressure
In 2024, there were 1.4 million applicants for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) in India, which is also known as the "science college entrance examination" in India. However, there were only 17760 spots available for engineering majors in the country's 23 renowned polytechnics. At the same time, 2.4 million students are competing for 108000 positions in the medical entrance examination. Many parents expect their children to become doctors or engineers, and the limited enrollment quota of prestigious schools has made competition extremely fierce, which has given rise to a booming education and training industry.
Industry reports predict that the total market value of the industry is expected to exceed 1.3 trillion Indian rupees (approximately 110 billion yuan) by 2028, more than doubling compared to 2021. Indian families have invested heavily in extracurricular tutoring, with a total expenditure of 250 billion rupees in 2020, even exceeding one-third of the central government's education funding. In the eyes of parents, India's "college entrance examination" is relatively fair and a rare pathway for upward mobility based on grades.
The popularity and hidden concerns of full-time tutoring classes
In Kota, a large number of students skip secondary education, stay away from family and friends, abandon their interests and hobbies, and devote themselves wholeheartedly to full-time subject tutoring, only to prepare for the medical or engineering "college entrance examination". In 2022, 14-year-old Sohrab Kumar gave up high school and went to Kota full-time tutoring school more than 1100 kilometers away to prepare for JEE in 2026. The elders in the family achieved a social transition by studying medicine, taking the civil service exam, or becoming an engineer, which made him eager to enter a technical college and become an aerospace engineer, setting an example for his younger siblings. He believed that entering a prestigious school could earn respect from the whole village.
However, these types of tutoring classes focus on standardized exam preparation, and students receive "endless, mechanized practice exercises". Retired professor Patak from Nehru University in India pointed out that here, besides exams, "nothing is important". Students cannot experience the joy of scientific experiments, appreciate the charm of poetry, and develop the ability to think deeply. They cannot understand that there is not only one correct answer to things. And behind every success, there are many 'heartbroken children'. In 2023, at least 26 current students in Kota chose to commit suicide due to academic pressure or parental pressure.
School 'idle' and chaos abound
The excessive dependence of students on private tutoring schools has rendered formal education virtually non-existent, leading to the illegal phenomenon of "shell schools" in many places. According to the educational system requirements, students need to maintain a 75% attendance rate in regular schools and pass the graduation exam in order to participate in the college entrance examination. However, they only need to pay to the "shell school" to obtain the qualification for the college entrance examination without having to go to school. Although the Indian government has attempted to regulate the education and training industry, such as setting the minimum age for extracurricular tutoring at 16 years old, the results have been minimal. Directly banning extracurricular tutoring will only drive the industry underground.
The chaos in the education and training industry is only a superficial manifestation of the deep-seated drawbacks of Indian education, and the fundamental contradiction lies in the scarcity of high-quality higher education resources. Maheshwey Perry, founder of the Indian education portal Career360, said that India has high expectations for education but lacks corresponding supply. Over the past five years, India's education expenditure has remained at around 3% of its gross domestic product, far below the 6% target set in the 1960s. Although India is committed to establishing new polytechnics and medical schools, the construction speed is slow and there are concerns about the lowering of educational standards. Patak calls on all parties to work together to save education from tutoring centers, establish high-quality and affordable public higher education institutions, and improve the "one exam determines lifelong" model. The road to education reform in India is long and arduous.
(Editer：admin)
