| 
Indian Students Spend $2.3-Billion
on Coaching
for Some Entrance Exams
By
Shailaja Neelakantan/NEW DELHI
Issue
cover-dated July 3, 2008
NEWNew Delhi — An Indian industry
group has estimated that students here spend $2.3-billion annually
on coaching to prepare for the entrance tests to the prestigious
Indian Institutes of Technology and other engineering colleges,
The Times of India reported today.
“The amount of money which goes to these institutions is enough
to open 30 to 40 IIT’s with lots of seats that can ensure admission
to average candidates,” Sajjan Jindal, president of the Associated
Chambers of Commerce and Industry, told the newspaper. Mr. Jindal
urged the deregulation of Indian higher education, saying that
the chief beneficiaries of the current system are big coaching
centers.
A spokesman for the industry group
said its figures were based on the assumption that 600,000 students
attend coaching classes every year and that the average cost
per student is $3,950. At least half the students who sit for
the exams use coaching centers to beat the cutthroat competition,
the spokesman said. A record 320,000 applicants took the entrance
exam for the elite IIT undergraduate engineering program in
April.
Some 80,000 to 90,000 students go
abroad for higher education, leading to a high foreign-exchange
outflow, the industry group said. “If quality institutions are
provided, a large number of students will stay back and contribute
to the nation,” the group said, adding that private players
and big industrial groups should be allowed to contribute to
higher education.
-Click here to read
more articles-
|
