Even though popular, private coaching comes at a cost: NSO report

In India, fees spent on private coaching classes make up for almost 20 per cent of the total cost of secondary and higher secondary school education, the latest report on education released by the National Statistical Organisation (NSO) said.

The report further showed that at least one in five students take up private coaching as an add-on to their school education, while almost one in three students opt for it at the secondary school level.

As private coaching classes and the education sector as a whole took a hit due to the Covid-19 pandemic, several coaching classes have shifted online. Students have been attending these classes from the comfort of their homes, using a smartphone or a laptop.

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The 75th round of the National Sample Survey, conducted between June 2017 and July 2018, further highlighted that 19.8 per cent of students from pre-primary to graduate levels take at least some form of private coaching, with the percentage going up to 30 per cent in class 9 and 10 students, who are preparing for board exams and other competitive admission tests.

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The report also showed that these private coaching classes can be pretty costly with over 18 per cent of a student’s total education expenditure going towards private coaching. On an average, higher secondary school students spend more than Rs 2,500 on private coaching. Average annual expenditure on education per student pursuing a general secondary course was estimated at Rs 9,013.

The survey also found that the eastern states tend to spend more on private coaching than the western states in India. It was also found that students in West Bengal spend an average of Rs 3,769 on private coaching.

(With PTI inputs)