Part 5 of 19 in Why Schools are Broken: and How to Fix Them← Part 4Part 6 →
This chapter examines how India’s coaching industry intensifies compulsory miseducation through exam preparation, foundation courses, and dummy schools. It helps readers understand the effects on students, families, schools, inequality, mental health, and trust in education.
- Competitive exam preparation has become a multi-thousand-crore industry in India.
- Students may begin foundation courses at 12 or 13 for exams taken years later.
- Coaching culture increases inequality, damages mental health, and crowds out other learning.
- Dummy schools preserve school structures while abandoning educational content.
- Students may learn to game the system instead of learning how to learn.
If ordinary schools represent the first layer of compulsory miseducation, the coaching industry represents the second and more intense layer. In India, preparing for competitive examinations has become a multi-thousand-crore industry. Students as young as 12 or 13 are enrolled in foundation courses for exams they will take five or six years later.
Story: Arjun in Kota
Arjun left his home in Bihar at 16 to study in Kota. He lives in a small room with two other students. His day begins at 6 a.m. with physics, continues through chemistry and mathematics, and ends after 10 p.m. with revision. He has not read a novel or played a sport in two years. His parents have taken a loan to fund this. They believe that if he clears the entrance exam, the family’s future will be secured.
Arjun may or may not clear the exam. Even if he does, he will have spent his adolescence in a highly artificial environment, learning problem-solving techniques rather than the joy of science. Goodman would have seen this as the logical endpoint of a system that values credentials above growth.
The Social Cost
The coaching culture has high social costs. It increases inequality, because only families with money can afford the best institutes. It damages mental health; suicide rates among students in coaching hubs are a grim reminder. It crowds out other forms of learning. And it signals to the entire society that the formal school system is not trustworthy.
The Dummy School and the Collapse of Trust
When large numbers of students attend dummy schools, the very idea of school as a place of learning collapses. The school becomes a certificate shop. Teachers in regular schools know that many of their best students are not really present. Administrators look the other way because enrolment numbers and pass percentages matter for their own evaluations. Parents accept the arrangement because the alternative—relying on the regular school—seems even riskier.
This is compulsory miseducation at its purest. The institutional form is preserved while the educational content is abandoned. Goodman warned that when schooling is required but not educational, it breeds cynicism. Indian students who spend two years in dummy schools and coaching centres often emerge with exactly that cynicism: they have learned how to game the system, not how to learn.
Frequently asked questions
What is compulsory miseducation in the coaching industry?
It is a system where students must pursue schooling and coaching, but the educational content is abandoned in favor of credentials and exam preparation.
How does coaching culture affect students in India?
It can crowd out reading, sports, and other forms of learning, while creating mental health pressures and teaching problem-solving techniques for exams.
What are dummy schools?
Dummy schools are arrangements where students are formally enrolled but spend their time in coaching centres instead of regularly attending school.
Why are dummy schools seen as a collapse of trust?
They signal that families do not trust the formal school system and turn schools into certificate shops while preserving only the institution's outward form.