In his Independence Day address from the Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an important announcement. He acknowledged that coaching classes have become a major financial burden on families, with parents fearing that a child who does not attend coaching will fall behind. The government, he said, would, therefore, use India’s digital public infrastructure, good teachers, and technology to build an extensive network offering free online coaching for examinations.

The intention is laudable. Coaching is expensive, and access to better coaching institutes is heavily tilted towards those who can afford it. A talented child in a small town or a poor family should not lose out merely because another candidate can spend several lakhs on coaching. Free access to good teachers and material can certainly reduce this inequality. But the announcement also contains a rather striking irony. Why has coaching become so indispensable in the first place?

Coaching And Schooling Gap

In India, the flourishing bottled-water business and the flourishing coaching industry tell a similar story. When a public system fails to provide a service of adequate quality and reliability, a private industry moves into the gap. Families buy drinking water because they do not completely trust what comes out of the tap. They buy coaching because they do not completely trust ordinary schooling or college education to prepare their children for the gateways to higher education and employment. Of course, private tuition has other causes too. But its extraordinary salience in India cannot be separated from weaknesses in the formal education system.

The numbers are revealing. According to the 2025 National Sample Survey cited in a recent India Forum article by Rahul Verma, 27 per cent of school-going children take private coaching. At the senior secondary level,........

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