GUWAHATI, June 23 - The State education department is in the process of constituting a committee to check the mushrooming of coaching institutes and regulate them.
The committee, which will comprise top officials of the education department, SEBA, AHSEC, engineering and medical colleges, is likely to be notified next week.
�Presently, there is no law which regulates the coaching institutions. They just operate with a trade licence given by the municipal body under the Companies Act. Unlike other educational institutions, they do not come under the purview of the education department. It is a completely unorganised sector and some of them reportedly charge lakhs of rupees as course fee from candidates aspiring for medical, engineering and other professional courses,� an education department official told The Assam Tribune.
Some contend that mushrooming of the coaching institutes, which are not governed by any rules or statutes, has led to a parallel education system. The committee will discuss with all stakeholders and frame guidelines to regulate the sector.
�All aspects, including fee charged, their infrastructure, salaries given to faculty, safety measures, etc., will be covered in the guidelines. The committee will recommend if any new legislation is required. The idea is to bring the institutes into a system,� the official said.
The Central government had last year asked all states to take effective steps to regulate such coaching institutes. The Supreme Court had also underlined the need to regulate the coaching institutes by framing guidelines as they cannot be �wiped out�.
According to a study, a whopping number of close to 87 per cent of primary school students and up to 95 per cent of the higher secondary students attend private coaching classes. According to an ADB study, the sector is growing at over 15 per cent each year.
