It is a sad comment on India’s education system and its employment scene that there are more and more coaching centres than colleges and universities nowadays. Some cities, such as Kota in Rajasthan, are in fact synonymous with their coaching centres, which are known to ensure that their students perform well in the various entrance examinations for professional courses.
However, of late, Kota has been in the headlines for the wrong reasons as rising student suicides have shifted focus to the mismatch between aspirations and opportunities. While Kota is not the only city known for its coaching centre, we attempt in this study to look at it as a case study to throw light on the question of why students choose to go to such centres and what they negotiate during their preparations for various exams.
With this objective, Lokniti-Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) conducted a survey of more than 1,000 students between the first and second week of October 2023. Thirty per cent of the sample consisted of girl students. The survey was conducted face-to-face using a structured questionnaire in Hindi. Each interview took 15-20 minutes to be completed. This is the first data point of a three-part series on Kota.
