MUMBAI: “The new draft bill for coaching classes doesn’t seem to want to regulate us but rather simply shut us down. If the bill is passed in its current form, at least 50% of all coaching classes will shut down,” said Dilip Mehendale, president of the Association of Coaching Class Owners and Mentors, on the Maharashtra Private Coaching Centers (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2026, which has been released to the public for suggestions till September 4.The bill has been many years in the making, with demands for regulating the coaching classes sector stretching back at least 20 years.The bill caps teaching at five hours a day, completely bars enrolment of students below the age of 13, requires a minimum of one square metre of built-up space per student and prohibits segregation of students based on performance.The latter is a common practice among coaching classes, where students are typically divided into three to four levels based on performance. The bill also, most controversially, completely bans “integrated” courses.Under these courses, coaching classes tie up with colleges to facilitate most academic work at the coaching centres, with students attending college only once a week for practical work in the laboratory.Mehendale explained, “Children below the age of 13 are being banned from joining any coaching classes, but it’s these formative years that require the most attention to build up their foundational knowledge. Integration with a college is needed because of how vast the Class 12 science portion is. We start classes during the vacation of the previous year to actually complete the portion.”Shriprakash Dixit, vice-president of the Junior College Teachers Union, said, “Colleges have lost a lot of their importance because of coaching classes, with students only actually coming to their designated colleges at most once a week to do their practical work. Colleges are tying up with classes only to serve their commercial interests, and classes particularly pick colleges where attendance monitoring for students is lax.”On the minimum requirement of one square metre of space per student, Mehendale said this measure would lead to at least 50% of all coaching classes in the city closing overnight, with almost all classes operating in slum pockets being forced to shut down.The Consortium of Coaching Teachers and Institutes, made up of nine registered coaching class associations, has informed TOI that it will approach the court if the law is passed in its current form.Shlok Devani, an IIT Madras postgraduate who attended an integrated coaching class in Thane, said, “Colleges are nowhere near the level of teaching a class is able to provide, and I see it as a logical evolution of the junior college system.”Speaking on the segregation of students based on performance, he said, “Being a part of the most elite group of students in coaching class, basics were cleared much faster, which allowed us to move on to harder questions or the next chapter, whereas other students needed more time per question. So overall, I think everyone has different needs which need to be catered to.”
