Living in today’s commercialized world is full of challenges. A world where everything comes with a price tag and education is not an exception. Every now and then we are being reminded that our educational centers must train our students to succeed in this competitive world. With the quality of education in main institutions like schools and colleges showing a gradual slack, the exponential growth of tuition and coaching centers is obvious. Over the years, this has emerged as a major public concern in the valley. This mushrooming of private institutions in every nook and corner of the valley is posing a challenging conundrum for educators, and to the common masses. It has been seen that many private coaching centers are openly violating norms so as to increase their income by setting fee structure according to their own likes and preferences. Although there is a wide spread realization of the need for their regulation, but owing to lack of concrete steps, the erring private coaching centres have gone scot free. Furthermore, these private institutions have also been encouraged by a rising number of students who prefer private coaching over the lectures in government institutions and are willing to pay whatever fees these coaching centers charge. Also, many people are of the opinion that as a result of today’s educational challenges, private coaching has become inevitable. This concept also helps coaching institutes build trust among the people and enables them to continue while flouting the set guidelines. Given the fact that this trend has significant long-term repercussions, the government has failed to regulate the functioning of private coaching centers and also the measures to regulate the commercialization of private institutions in the valley have not yielded good results so far. The government occasionally comes up with the list of measures being taken to regulate the private educational institutions, including fee charged from the students, wages paid to the teaching staff and admissions. The official regulations state that institutions must accept 20 to 25% of students from families living below the poverty line; private institutions, on the other hand, seldom obey it. Similarly, private educational institutes must set aside seats for economically disadvantaged students so that students from remote and backward areas can benefit. Many experts are of the opinion that commercialization in education is posing a serious challenge to the quality of education in the current social and economic context. Rather than making hollow statements and assumptions, there is a desperate need for action. This is the need of the hour to introduce legislation defining rules for the regulation of private institutions. The concerned authorities should devise a comprehensive strategy to check the violation of norms by these institutions so that general public is not taken for a ride in the name of education.
