MUMBAI: In the Class X exams conducted by the Maharashtra education board this year, 125 students scored 100 per cent marks. Of them, 68 were from Latur alone. This did not happen suddenly or by chance. For over two decades, teachers and educational institutes in the Marathwada city have worked hard and evolved a system — that has now come to be known as ‘Latur Pattern’ — which has helped scores of students crack competitive exams like NEET and IIT-JEE and get good grades in class X and XII board exams.
These are schools and colleges that provide coaching to students beyond the regular teaching hours. There are private coaching institutes as well.
It all started in the late 80s and early 90s when some enthusiastic teachers were motivated to take education to rural parts of Marathwada. Dr Aniruddha Jadhav, former principal of Rajarshi Shahu College, narrates how teachers used to go around in rural areas back then to fetch good students for the college. A desire to bring the ‘backward’ Marathwada region in competition with education hubs like Pune and Mumbai also led the teachers to cut short their vacations and teach students.
“With teachers devoting personal attention to each student, success became a hallmark of the Rajarshi Shahu College. The working spirit evolved during those days is maintained even now,” said Dr Jadhav.
This now applies to all educational institutes in Latur. The ‘Latur Pattern’ is all about mastering the art of excelling in exams through repetitive practice of questions and going through mock tests for mental conditioning to face the exam pressure.
“Special lectures are held for Class X during the summer vacation so that students have completed more than half the syllabus during the 45-50 day period. The remaining half is finished by October,” said MM Agraharkar, principal of Deshikendra School.
“Students’ understanding of a subject is constantly evaluated through weekly tests. Diwali vacations are also meant for special coaching sessions. Mock tests begin during these sessions and continue up to February when every student has solved at least 10 papers for each subject.”
Every institution has some of the other special addition to this pattern. For example, Dayanand College has special difficulty-solving sessions after teaching hours daily. They have evolved a system to take student’s feedback on teaching skills of the faculty. “We use this feedback for evaluation of teachers, and the scores are considered during their promotions,” said Dr Jayprakash Dargad, the principal.
Personal contact of teachers with the students’ families is a unique quality of the ‘Latur pattern’. “Our teachers visit students at their home and interact with their parents to understand problems in a holistic manner. They give feedback on the academic development of their wards from time to time,” said Sunil Vasmatkar, a supervisor at the Keshavraj Vidyalaya.
In the initial days, the ‘Latur pattern’ got a fillip from the 1987 judgment of the Supreme Court which revoked restrictions based on geographical regions in the matter of admission to professional colleges.
“From 1988 to 1999, students from Shahu College accounted for about 120 seats in all government medical colleges and 80 seats in engineering colleges. Students of the Dayanand College and the Mahatma Gandhi College were not far behind. Thus, Latur grabbed 90 per cent of the open seats in professional colleges across the state year after year,” Dr Jadhav said. In a sort of money-back guaranty scheme, the students who excel in competitive exams are given cash rewards by their institutes.
There are flip sides to this success story, too. Many times, coaching institutes have ‘understanding’ with colleges, which send their students for coaching and take care of their attendance. The colleges get fees and save resources on teaching staff while coaching institutes get assured enrolment of students.
The big money in the business has attracted ‘outsiders’ and with them have come to all kinds of ills, says Lakshminarayan Lahoti, the chairman of the trust that runs the Dayanand College.
The owner of ‘Step by Step’ coaching, Avinash Chavan, 36, was murdered by contract killers in June. Police investigation revealed that a former partner of Chavan had given a Rs 22 lakh 'supari' (contract) to kill him in a bid to eliminate competition. The delay has probably started but for now, Latur’s toppers’ factory is basking in the glory of its success.