Kota retains its charm as the top coaching destination for the IIT entrance exams.
The despondent look in his
eyes was unmistakable.
Sitting alone in a canteen in a
coaching institute at Kota,
Kamal Singh was
accompanying a friend who
was seeking admission there
to prepare for the entrance
exams for the Indian
Institutes of Technology.
Singh knows the difficulties
his friend faces in achieving
his goal. A native of Muiyan
village in Bihar's Siwan
district, Singh first came to
this nondescript Rajasthan
town in 2009 after completing
his Class 12 with the same
dream. He couldn't make it
despite studying as many as
12 hours a day for two
years and spending close to
Rs 2.5 lakh, an amount that
his small-time shop owner
father arranged by selling
their farm land. "There was
no point in going back," he
says. "I had come to be an
engineer and could not have
returned without being one."
His dreams shattered, he
now studies in a private
engineering college in
Jalandhar, Punjab, shelling
out another Rs 6 lakh for the
course. "There was no
admission test and I was
admitted on the basis of
Class 12 results," he says.
Singh's friend is among more
than one lakh students who
arrive in Kota, the mecca of
IIT coaching, every year.
Girls comprise nearly a fifth
of the students. This year
about 1.25 lakh students are
likely to join Kota-based
institutes, according to
estimates by coaching
centres. Besides, there are
the so-called "droppers",
who stay on for repeat
attempts by hopping from
one institute to another. Most
students fail to make it to the
IITs as seats are limited and
competition intense. That still
hasn't dampened the
aspirations of thousands of
others.
Depending on the course,
students spend between Rs
40,000 and Rs 1 lakh a year
on tuition fee alone in Kota's
coaching centres. Annual
boarding and lodging
expenses are at least Rs
60,000. Most students are
from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh,
Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan
and Uttarakhand. Students
are coming in from faraway
places, too. Anurag Gulung,
17, from Gangtok, Sikkim
came to Kota last year while
Mohammed Kamran, 16, is
here from Oman. Gulung's
first introduction to Kota was
from a Chetan Bhagat novel
-- Revolution 2020: Love,
Corruption, Ambition -- in
which the protagonist comes
to the town for engineering
coaching. "This place (Kota)
is ideal for coaching," says
Gulung. "It has the best
faculty. If you follow what the
teacher says, selection is
guaranteed." Kamran, who is
here with his 80-year-old
grandfather Amir Mohammed,
agrees. "I always wanted to
be at the IIT and this is the
best place for its coaching."
eyes was unmistakable.
Sitting alone in a canteen in a
coaching institute at Kota,
Kamal Singh was
accompanying a friend who
was seeking admission there
to prepare for the entrance
exams for the Indian
Institutes of Technology.
Singh knows the difficulties
his friend faces in achieving
his goal. A native of Muiyan
village in Bihar's Siwan
district, Singh first came to
this nondescript Rajasthan
town in 2009 after completing
his Class 12 with the same
dream. He couldn't make it
despite studying as many as
12 hours a day for two
years and spending close to
Rs 2.5 lakh, an amount that
his small-time shop owner
father arranged by selling
their farm land. "There was
no point in going back," he
says. "I had come to be an
engineer and could not have
returned without being one."
His dreams shattered, he
now studies in a private
engineering college in
Jalandhar, Punjab, shelling
out another Rs 6 lakh for the
course. "There was no
admission test and I was
admitted on the basis of
Class 12 results," he says.
Singh's friend is among more
than one lakh students who
arrive in Kota, the mecca of
IIT coaching, every year.
Girls comprise nearly a fifth
of the students. This year
about 1.25 lakh students are
likely to join Kota-based
institutes, according to
estimates by coaching
centres. Besides, there are
the so-called "droppers",
who stay on for repeat
attempts by hopping from
one institute to another. Most
students fail to make it to the
IITs as seats are limited and
competition intense. That still
hasn't dampened the
aspirations of thousands of
others.
Depending on the course,
students spend between Rs
40,000 and Rs 1 lakh a year
on tuition fee alone in Kota's
coaching centres. Annual
boarding and lodging
expenses are at least Rs
60,000. Most students are
from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh,
Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan
and Uttarakhand. Students
are coming in from faraway
places, too. Anurag Gulung,
17, from Gangtok, Sikkim
came to Kota last year while
Mohammed Kamran, 16, is
here from Oman. Gulung's
first introduction to Kota was
from a Chetan Bhagat novel
-- Revolution 2020: Love,
Corruption, Ambition -- in
which the protagonist comes
to the town for engineering
coaching. "This place (Kota)
is ideal for coaching," says
Gulung. "It has the best
faculty. If you follow what the
teacher says, selection is
guaranteed." Kamran, who is
here with his 80-year-old
grandfather Amir Mohammed,
agrees. "I always wanted to
be at the IIT and this is the
best place for its coaching."
Comments