The Karnataka government has proposed barring children under 15 from enrolling in private coaching centres and limiting coaching to five hours a day under a new set of draft regulations aimed at reducing academic pressure on students.
The proposed Karnataka Tutorial Institutions or Coaching Centre (Registration and Regulation) Rules, 2026, notified by the Higher Education Department on October 28, would also restrict coaching hours to between 6 am and 9 pm and prohibit classes during regular school and college hours.
The rules are intended to replace the Karnataka Tutorial Institutions (Registration and Regulation) Rules, 2001. They remain proposals and will need to complete the prescribed process before coming into force.
Under the draft, the restriction applies to children below 15 years of age and students who have not completed their Class 10 examinations. Coaching centres would be required to count tests, revision sessions and doubt-clearing classes within the five-hour daily limit.
The draft also seeks to prevent coaching from displacing regular schooling, amid concerns about students attending so-called dummy institutions while spending most of their time preparing for competitive examinations.
Counselling and mental health support made compulsory
The proposed rules require coaching centres to have a mental health counsellor and conduct periodic mental health awareness workshops for students and parents. Tutors would also need training to discuss students’ academic performance and areas for improvement sensitively.
Internal assessment results cannot be made public, either within or outside the coaching centre. Instead, the results must be used to track students’ progress, with counselling provided when academic performance deteriorates.
The draft states: “Keeping the assessment test confidential, it should be used for regular analysis of performance of students and the student whose education performance is deteriorating, should be provided counselling as per the provisions of this guidelines.”
Coaching centres would also have to provide information about career options beyond engineering and medicine, with the stated aim of helping students consider alternatives rather than viewing a small number of competitive examinations as the only routes to success.
Coaching centres face restrictions on faculty recruitment
The draft rules prohibit coaching centres from employing faculty members working in government or government-aided institutions. They would also be barred from hiring tutors convicted of offences involving moral turpitude.
Two district-level monitoring committees are proposed to oversee compliance: one for Bengaluru Urban district and another covering the rest of Karnataka.
The regulations also address the way coaching institutions operate, including the need to register with the relevant authorities and comply with prescribed conditions. The proposed framework would bring tutorials and coaching centres under a common regulatory definition.
Karnataka’s wider education reform exercise
The proposal follows a broader education reform exercise initiated by the Karnataka government. In September, an education reforms sub-committee sought public suggestions on regulating coaching centres, private school fees, classroom strength and the qualifications required of coaching teachers.
The committee was also examining whether registration should be compulsory for coaching centres, whether fire and building safety clearances should be mandatory, and whether classes conducted during school hours should be prohibited.
In August, the state government constituted a Cabinet sub-committee to examine concerns involving examination malpractice, student welfare, private education fees, infrastructure and the regulation of coaching institutions. Its remit included academic stress and suicide prevention, particularly in coaching hubs, hostels and residential educational institutions.
Centre’s 2024 guidelines set the national context
Karnataka’s proposal follows the Union Education Ministry’s January 2024 guidelines for regulating coaching centres. Those guidelines recommended that states establish appropriate legal frameworks covering registration, fees, infrastructure, advertising, student well-being and grievance redressal.
The central guidelines also proposed restricting enrolment of students below 16 years or allowing enrolment only after the secondary school examination. They called for counselling support, a weekly day off for students and tutors, and a limit of five hours of coaching a day. However, the guidelines were issued for states and Union Territories to implement through their own legal frameworks.
In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha in August 2026, the Ministry of Education said several states and Union Territories had since introduced their own coaching regulations or guidelines. These included rules or policies in Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, as well as legislation in Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Assam.