Saturday 25 February 2012

Of coaching classes and board exams

Every year, thousands of students in the country take a break after Class XII and enroll in coaching classes at Kota for various entrance exams. However, in Jaipur, most students prefer to clear such competitive exams along with their Class XII board exam.
If the coaching institutes are to be believed, the number of such students simultaneously attending their classes is around 30% of the total number of students taking coaching in various institutes. Most of the students are just appearing to get a feel of the examination so that in future they would be able to give a shot properly. Others hope they have a fair chance to clear the competitive exams. The latter are inspired by the success stories of students who cleared the competitive exams in the first attempt.
Mukesh Gupta, a Class XII student of a private school and a resident of Vidhyadhar Nagar, has a busy schedule as he has to begin his day early to attend the school and then attend coaching classes in the evening. Most students in his class too have enrolled in coaching classes and despite the fact that the board exams are only less than 10 days away, they continue to attend coaching classes regularly, he said.
"I think there is no harm in appearing for competitive tests like AIEEE this year. But I have to strike a balance between my Class XII studies and competitive exams," he said.
Vice-president (operations and business development) of a coaching institute, Manoj Sharma said: "I think more than 30% of students preparing for IIT, AIEEE and medical entrance examination in our coaching institutes are those who are also appearing for the board examinations."
Since a lot of students are appearing in competitive exams simultaneously with board exams, most students and parents feel that there should be some in-house training available in schools. "It would help if the schools themselves had some arrangement to include preparations for competitive exams as a routine. This would reduce the pressure on the children, who strive hard to score well in both the boards and competitive exams,'' said Manoj Kumar Sharma, father of a Class XII student Ashish.
However, Principal of Neerja Modi School Kanak Khanna said: "CBSE does not allow us to help the students to prepare for competitive schools." St Xavier's School vice-principal CK Punnoose said: "Since the syllabus of competitive exams is vast and different, it is not possible to give coaching for entrance exams as there are all kinds of students in schools. So, there are chances that we may get complaints that some students are not coping up with the studies. So we are not providing any coaching for entrance exams."
Besides, a private school official said that the coaching institutes are following the formula of catching them young. "I do not know how they approach the students individually to lure them to coaching centres. It has changed the entire culture," she said.

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