CHENNAI: When Common University Entrance Test (CUET) was introduced by UGC, its advocates claimed that it would not encourage a coaching culture. The ground reality, however, begs to differ.
Coaching centres, especially ed-tech firms, have already come up with packages for CUET preparation. From mock tests to regular classes, they have designed all kinds of courses to fit individual students’ pockets and TN students are not immune to their pull.
As with NEET, the State government is opposed to CUET and are urging the Centre for its rollback, but students in the State seem to be in no mood to waste their time. According to market players, TN students are inquiring about CUET coaching and are enrolling in it in good numbers.
“In the southern region, we are looking at two big markets for CUET-related courses, one in Kerala and the second in Tamil Nadu. We are offering general test and language and domain subject courses to crack CUET,” said an official of ed-tech firm Career Launcher.
According to instant-live tutoring start-up, Filo, an average 19,000 students in Chennai log in to their platform daily to clear their doubts. And a large number of these queries are related to CUET. “CUET is being held for the first time this year, so there is curiosity and anxiety about it. As the exam date is nearing, queries on CUET coaching have increased by five times on our platform,” said Imbesat Ahmad, Co-founder and CEO of Filo.
Leading ed-tech companies such as BYJU’S and Vedanta have rolled out courses for CUET preparation with prices starting from Rs 10,000 to Rs 40,000. Local coaching centres, too, are jumping on the bandwagon, with those offering IAS and TNPSC training chalking out courses for CUET. “After studying its question pattern this year, we will design our preparatory courses,” said S Shashidharan, who runs a coaching centre in Anna Nagar.
Former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Madras P Duraisamy said: “Any kind of entrance test needs preparation and students will run to coaching centres to prepare for it. So, CUET is no different. For engineering and medicine, entrance tests are acceptable, but introducing such a test for humanities and general higher education courses is a blunder,” said Duraisamy.
Another cash cow?
Fees of some CUET preparation courses by leading ed-tech firms ranges from `10,000 to `40,000