Tag: coaching

No regrets in life, just lessons.

Describe something you learned in high school.

Most teachers in India advise students to attend private tutoring classes. Some take those classes themselves and collect money privately from students.

Those who opt out are threatened with failure in important subjects of study.

So most of us were just pushed into this bullying trade when we were in school.

We were further told academic excellence could only be achieved if students attend private tutoring classes.

That was a huge lesson.

 

The last straw on camel’s back!

“Dear god, Krishna ji, please stay with me, please keep my parents happy … please help me crack Neet 2024”.

“God teach me how to work very hard” 

Those messages one never misses seeing on the wall of the Radhakrishna temple located at Kota, Rajasthan in India.

Kota in India is home to thousands of coaching centres for engineering and medical entrance examinations.

People call the city now the most stressful, as the place is known for all wrongful reasons. 27 students committed suicide last year and the number is rising.

Three have died this year. The latest being a 19-year-old engineering aspirant. RIP!

2 million students appear each year for just 140,000 seats in medical colleges in India. Over one million people compete for 10,000 seats in top engineering institutions called IITs.

Months ago, I went to a coaching centre located in Trichy, South of India.

Students study 18 hours a day, walking like zombies on the campus. Many of them sleep during class.

Teachers were mostly seen rushing through chapters and completing the job like how train drivers run between stations. Too mechanical, to say the least.

I saw a coach, an MIT, Chrompet (Chennai) alumni and an MD of a popular NEET academy breaking down in the middle of class, cry in front of students and start begging them for attention in the class.

Parents in India pay through nose (₹150,000 a year plus ₹30K for food & accommodation) for their children’s education. They place enormous hope on their wards. They want to see them as doctors or engineers, nothing less.

But there’s a sorry sight to the whole story.

Students can’t cope and they commit suicide. The pressure for them is just too much to bear.

The government is confused. While the authorities sit, discuss and contemplate measures to arrest this disturbing trend, students continue to harm themselves at these killer-centres.

Why do students resort to making such extreme ends?

Mental health issues, academic pressure and social stigma drive students to go to this extreme end – screams the article in Frontline, The Hindu.

35% of recorded suicides occur in the age group of students between 15 and 24 years, says statistics on Wikipedia.

Are students happy at home?

Studies say students who are well integrated with their families and community have a good support system during crises, protecting them against suicide. 

Low levels of emotional warmth often drive them to seek a lonely spot.

A high level of parental control, or over-protection, by parents is associated with a three-fold increase in the risk of their ward’s suicidal behaviour.

How to spot them going bonkers early on?

Students nowadays pick up info about harming themselves from platforms such as YouTube and the internet.

A suicide often precedes an attempt. An early identification of what they do when they are alone and timely intervention should help stop them.

This could help in reducing suicide rates in India, experts say.

Intervention as well as a primary prevention strategy could help keep the rate of suicide under check.

Create a positive atmosphere for the children to interact freely with parents, elderly and friends.

Teach the students to cope. Tell them to learn an adaptive mechanism in life.

An awareness campaign should be spread among parents, teachers and healthcare professionals regarding child-rearing practices.

The community should frequently meet up, sit and discuss various social programs, such as child and family-supporting ones.

The community agenda may further include programs that aim at achieving gender and socio-economic equality.

Start now to see the results.

PS: the happiest lot I’ve seen at the NEET campus was the young staff working in the canteen.

They were of a similar age group. But they were more independent, carefree, employed, earning, carrying a phone, riding on bikes, socializing, cheerful and headed home by evening.

 

Failure is a stepping stone to success.

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?

A failure should never put us down. Failure is all about signs that take us to progress.

Give you an example of how failure turned a man into a huge success.

My friend, Sakthivel lived in Trichy, a fort city in Tamilnadu, South of India.

He did his graduation in automobile engineering and quickly found a job with an auto giant.

He was good at work, hit big in the company and brought fame. But that didn’t last long though.

He quit the job within two years as he was too stressed.

He had to travel most of the time and he missed his family. His wife, two daughters (twins) and a young son missed him a lot.

He decided to launch a start-up and pledged all the assets he owned to banks for funds.

He started a showroom that sold Italian-made scooters. 

He soon ran into trouble. Sales didn’t go as expected. He failed in the venture.

He lost his money and went completely bankrupt. His family was broke.

He sat introspecting one day when a customer called and said he wanted to buy a scooter. All Sakthivel had in his possession was one last scooter.

As he was waiting for the customer Anil, his nephew Prakash popped in for the routine coaching classes. Sakthivel was helping the boy with his class 12 exams.

The doorbell rang as Anil entered. He apologized for turning up so late. He saw Sakthivel sitting in the cabin with a boy and there was a class going on. 

Sakthivel said he was helping his nephew with free coaching in physics and mathematics.

Anil asked if he would mind coaching his daughter Purnima too, as she was struggling with the subjects and the exams were fast approaching. He said he would pay for his service.

Sakthivel wasn’t too keen. But he said jokingly that he would coach his daughter for free if he bought the scooter as promised.

Anil was so happy and issued a check at once. Finally, a sale was made.

He kept his promise and helped both his nephew and the girl with some serious coaching in physics and mathematics. He himself was a top ranking student in the said subjects at school and college. 

The duo appeared for the examination and the results came. Both scored good marks.

Anil’s family was joyous as their daughter scored full marks. A 100/100 each in Physics and Mathematics. All thanks to strict coaching by Sakthivel.

As a gratitude, Anil took him to the school where his daughter Purnima studied. The head of the school was so thankful to Sakthivel and asked if he could offer his services as a special coach to teach Physics & Mathematics to the rest of the students in the school.

He said YES.

He soon became so popular with the students, and they called him a ‘Century Coach’. Because he helped many students to score 100 in physics and mathematics.

Many schools approached Sakthivel for special assistance in coaching students.

He has hit fame now. 

He now owns two colleges in the city, and has just taken up another huge place in Chennai for the purpose of coaching students to write NEET, an entrance exam for students who wish to join popular medical colleges in India.

Sakthivel is now heading the ‘Sakthi Residential NEET Academy’ headquartered at Trichy.

He runs his own YouTube channel and is a popular coach among students all over India.

The number of students in his academy is now growing each year. The strength stands now at around 1000.

Failures in his life didn’t tire him. Failure made sure he was progressing to a successful entrepreneur.