Concerned about the welfare of students, the Ministry of Education has announced several guidelines for mushrooming dummy schools across the country. The missive came as the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reports poured in that across the country, a student took his or her own life every 42 minutes; or, in other words, 34 students died by suicide every day. The culprit is the cut-throat competition, and the easy availability of admissions in ‘dummy schools,’ thanks to many coaching institutes doubling up as intermediaries. The malice is so widespread that over two lakh students flock to Kota in Rajasthan every year yearning to compete for exams like the JEE for engineering and the NEET for admission to medical colleges, all thanks to admission to ‘dummy schools’ that ‘manage’ their required attendance. Students skip schools to join coaching institutes even to crack CUET. The new guidelines say that the coaching centres can now only enrol students at least 16-years-old. However, umpteen centres across the nation have enrolled students of Class 8 to 12 preparing for competitive examinations.
Tehelka’s cover story “School Scam: The Dummy Business” exposes the unholy nexus between dummy schools and coaching centres. Our special investigation team recorded on hidden cameras how across India, dummy schools thrive in collusion with coaching centres. Tehelka conducted an eagerly awaited investigation into dummy schools, which operate in conjunction with coaching institutions. The institutes agreed to our team’s request for “our ward’s” admission for NEET/JEE preparation and assured us that they would also facilitate the child’s admission to a CBSE-affiliated dummy school, without worrying about curriculum and attendance, boasting their expertise in the ‘dummy business’.
The covert network where coaching centres broker arrangements between students and dummy schools to profit from this dubious tie-up benefits these unscrupulous operators – the schools that earn extra revenue without the overheads of additional teachers or physical space, while coaching centres secure additional income from facilitating these transactions and enrolling students. Ironically, all this happening despite the CBSE disaffiliating and downgrading many schools recently, under surprise inspections across the country in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Assam, and Madhya Pradesh.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan agrees that the issue of dummy schools cannot be ignored anymore and the time has come to have serious discussions and deliberations on the subject. Experts are unanimous in their opinion that students staying away from regular schools often struggle with restricted personality development and growth. The revelation calls for a thorough overhaul and stringent regulations to ensure the integrity of the education system. Former President of India and an aerospace scientist, APJ Abdul Kalam once said that teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, calibre, and future of an individual. Let’s us strive to live up to that lofty ideal!
