IELTS and coaching institutes in Ludhiana stare at losses
With the deputy commissioner ordering a closure till April 30 to prevent gathering of students, the institutes say that there are rarely any takers for online classes
The owners of the IELTS and coaching centres in the district are a worried lot as the district magistrate-cum-deputy commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma on Monday ordered their closure till April 30.
They stated that last year too due to the Covid pandemic the coaching centres had been hit hard and there was a dip in enrolment. The institutes were allowed to resume offline classes in October last year when the schools were reopened for Classes 9 to 12.
The owners said that to ensure social distancing during the offline classes they had increased the number of batches and teachers last year and had to pay their salaries, GST, electricity bills, and the monthly rent. They added that now again with the closure of the institutes, they will face a financial crisis.
There are around 750 IELTS and other coaching institutes in the district and a majority of them are located in Feroze Gandhi market, near the ISBT, Model Town, Sector 32, Khanna, Doraha, Samrala, and Macchiwara.
Priyanshu, the owner of Shepherd Institute, Model Town, who offers IELTS and spoken English coaching, said, “We will wait till May 1 as the government has closed the institutions till April 30. If the authorities extend the closure, then we will start with online classes. But the students taking IELTS coaching prefer offline classes. Last year, due to the lockdown imposed by the government, only a few students had turned up for these courses.”
Munish Dewan, director, IMS, said, “We have already suspended offline classes and will be starting with the online ones from Thursday. We provide coaching for the Common Admission Test (CAT), Common Law Admission Test (CLAT), and graduate record examination. In 2019, 500 students had got enrolled with us while last year, only 200 students did. Students are not satisfied with the online classes.”
Students prefer physical classes
For IELTS, the institutes prepare the students in four spheres reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Most of these students are from rural backgrounds and they prefer to attend physical classes where they can get a chance to speak in English with their fellow students, instead of attending an online class.
Supriya Kumari, a resident of Model Town, said, “I was attending six-hour coaching classes from the last three months and was preparing for the IELTS exam scheduled to be held next month. But the institute authorities sent a message regarding the suspension of offline class. I have paid a fee of ₹31,000 and have appeared in the mock tests and will not be attending the online classes as the face-to-face interaction is missing in these classes. The government must allow the institutes to continue the physical classes with only 10 to 15 students in one batch.”
Another student, Gaganpreet Singh, who is taking JEE Advanced coaching from a centre based in Dugri, said, “Since November, I have been attending offline classes and was able to get my doubts cleared. The closure of the institute again will affect our eyesight and concentration as we’ll have to switch to the online mode.”