Govt: Examine reliance of students on coaching, fairness of entrance exams

THE Ministry of Education has constituted a nine-member panel to review concerns related to private coaching institutions, rise of 'dummy schools', and the effectiveness and fairness of entrance examinations, officials said on Friday.

- EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi

The committee headed by Secretary (Higher Education) Vineet Joshi is tasked with suggesting measures to reduce the dependency of students on coaching centres for their higher education needs.

"The committee will examine the gaps in the current schooling system that contribute to students' reliance on coaching centres, particularly the limited focus on critical thinking, logical reasoning, analytical skills and innovation and the prevalence of rote learning practices," a senior Ministry of Education official told news agency PTI.

The committee will also look into the mushrooming of dummy schools. Thousands of students preparing for engineering and medical entrance examinations prefer to take admission in dummy schools so that they can focus solely on competitive exam preparations.