Diana has? taken a loan from a private fin-ance company and also decided to take up a job as a child caretaker in Qatar. “I have acc-epted this offer so that my three daughters can have a decent life. The loan I took is alm-ost exhausted as I have spent a large part of it for the visa process and to pay the broker,” Diana confides. Diana hopes she will land in Qatar soon and would be able to pay the first instalment to the coaching institute.

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Archana, 17, who secured a none-too-flattering 350 marks out of 600 in her class 12 board exam, is hoping the? coaching will help her crack the NEET. “I have grown up seeing my mother slog it out as a helper in a hospital and I wanted to become a doctor in that same hospital. By doing that I’m trying to heal the wounds of my mother,” Archana says. Archana is among lakhs of students in the country who have the same dream of cracking what is one of India’s toughest competitive exams. And like all other small towns and big cities, Trichy—the short and more popular name of Tiruchirapalli—too has become a hub of mushrooming coaching centres that sell dreams to the youngsters and parents alike.

Over the past decade, with the growth of Trichy as a semi-metropolitan city, these coaching centres have become a magnet for tens of thousands of aspirants hoping to crack the competitive exams. Once people studying in these coaching centres were mostly from middle class families, but now more and more children from relatively weaker financial backgrounds are signing up for coaching, hoping to change their and their families’ fortunes by securing their dream jobs.

Most of these centres coach students for competitive entrance tests like NEET, JEE and IIT while others train students to crack the UPSC, Tamil Nadu public service commission exams (TNPSC) and SSC exams. Some of these centres are accused of using harsh methods on students to ensure good results in the highly competitive market of coaching. Among them is a 15-year-old IAS coaching centre known for producing top ranked candidates in TNPSC.? Mostly preferred by women aspirants, the academy is run by a teacher known as the “man with a cane”— who wears a collar mike and a suit resembling a pastor in a posh church.

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The academy’s infrastructure resembles a three-star hotel and the fees range from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 lakh according to the courses the students choose. The classrooms here are not the typical ones but a huge hall packed with hundreds of students. There are separate batches for each of the exams for which more than 500 students are seen in each batch.

One of the students studying in this academy said on the condition of anonymity, “Our class starts by 9am in the morning and ends by 3pm in the evening. Frequent breaks are not allowed and the class is quite cramped so that it becomes uncomfortable for women students. The teacher here is quite harsh with female students and doesn’t hesitate to insult us. Insults and slurs are very common here.”

Asked why the students put up with such abuse, the student said, “Because we have already signed the acknowledgement form accepting this kind of treatment. Not only do the students get scolded or abused, if needed, parents are also insulted in the presence of hundreds of students.” Some students defended the treatment meted out to them, saying that the tough rules are indeed very important for them to stay motivated. Also students said that it creates peer pressure and makes them more serious in their preparations. Some also argued that despite the negatives, they believe that at the end of the day they might crack their exams and end up with a government job which is permanent and stable unlike a private sector job.

Murugaiyan, an award-winning school teacher and an educationist, accuses the “NEET coaching centres of looting money from the poor and selling the idea of a secure future to the students. Students from rural backgrounds find it hard to cope with the CBSC syllabus. The entire idea of NEET itself is anti-poor and anti-democratic. The fees structure for these coaching centres are not regulated… government is also in a way encouraging these centres.”

Even the higher education minister of Tamil Nadu K. Ponmudi recently said, “With the introduction of NEET, schools and students are not taking class XII board exam marks seriously and think it is enough to just clear the exams and instead, prepare for NEET. As a result of this, coaching centres that charge Rs 2 to 5 lakh have mushroomed across the state.” The state government is vehemently opposed to NEET and wants Tamil Nadu out of the purview of the all-India test.

Trichy already has a coaching centre run by the government employment office along with its skill development programme. Many mock and model tests are also conducted in the city’s central library. “This place has excellent teachers and infrastructure to help students from various backgrounds. In fact, there is a healthy competition between each other. We work together to clarify our doubts and stay with each other in hard times,” says Gayathri, 26, a TNPSC aspirant. While talking to a group of students, preparing for their exams in government-run coaching centres, about their past experience with private coaching institutes, many opened up with their personal struggles.

Anusha, 24, daughter of a farmer from a village near Thanjavur and a BSc Mathematics graduate said she had struggled to convince their parents about her aim to crack a service exam. She said she could not agree with her parents’ idea about taking a private job and settling down with whatever she got. Anusha says, “On a daily basis, I travel two hours to reach this place. Earlier, I studied in a private centre in Thanjavur and paid around Rs 10,000 which my parents struggled a lot to pay. But here I don’t have to pay excess money to get the same amount of knowledge I receive in private centres.” She also added there is a myth and manufactured image on these coaching centres .They spend huge amounts of money for advertisements in digital media and newspapers which attracts many parents. Whereas nobody knows about the infrastructure provided by government-run centres.

Vishnu Priya, 26, is preparing for a Staff Selection Committee (SSC) test at the government institute. She said she has taken the challenge of cracking this exam and somehow securing a? government job so that she gets a stable income in the future. “I studied in a famous IAS institute in Trichy whose head office is in Chennai. They charge more than Rs one lakh for IAS preparation. After some time, I stopped going there because teaching me properly was not their concern. Whereas, I get whatever I want in this government institute,” she says.

After working hard as a contract labour in BHEL, Bala had quit his job and saved money to pursue his dreams of a permanent job and salary. A TNPSC aspirant in the government institute, Bala, 26, says, “Teachers here are really helpful and have a multi-disciplinary approach. Most of the teachers here also teach in private institutes so there is no need for me to spend exorbitant money to pursue my dreams.”

(This appeared in the print edition as "Cane and Able")

S.R. Pearson Lenekar in Tiruchirapalli