Coaching centres in Andhra Pradesh seem to be teeming with students who passed their intermediate exams during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Even though it seems like it is relatively under control, COVID-19 has continued to impact the education system. Since students passed their intermediate during the COVID-19 lockdown, now their preference is to join long-term coaching to prepare for the NEET UG and JEE examinations to be held next year.
Mainly, it is their parents who are rushing them to join long-term coaching in private coaching centres. Reportedly, the admissions to these coaching centres has gone up three times when compared to the previous years. This is true for coaching centres across the state, mainly in Nellore, Vijayawada and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh as well as in Hyderabad, Telangana, stated a report in The New Indian Express.
Due to the pandemic, during the two years (2019-20, 2020-21), all the students who registered for SSC examination were declared passed by the government. All of them virtually attended classes at that time. The same candidates passed their intermediate first year during 2020-21 in the same way, without attending proper classes.
According to experts, all of those who passed during the COVID lockdown are comparatively dull in all the subjects. Though maximum of them attempted NEET and JEE exams in 2022, a few achieved their goals.
Hence, the parents of these students enrolled their children in long-term coaching. Speaking to TNIE, a parent from Vedayapalem, Nellore, Billa Mahesh said that his son, Surendra, passed SSC and intermediate first-year exam without attempting examinations. He barely passed the intermediate second year, attempted NEET 2022 and performed poorly. Hence, before the results, he enrolled his son in a popular corporate coaching centre for long term, he added.
As the demand has gone up, the institutions are collecting huge fees citing COVID as the reason. It has become an additional burden to middle and lower-middle-class parents to enroll their kids by spending lakhs of fees. Hence, they are sending their children to regular degree colleges.
The same situation was also observed in the admissions of intermediate first-year students. Those students who passed during the COVID-19 lockdown prefered to join art groups in intermediate instead of MPC or BiPC.
A government employee M Mukesh from Currency Nagar, Vijayawada said that his daughter Yamini finished her SSC in 2020 and intermediate first year in 2021 as well as her second year in 2022. She did not score well in NEET 2022, Hence, they approached a coaching centre to enroll her for long-term coaching but the management was demanding Rs 2.5 lakh for only nine months along with hostel charges, he added.
