Student suicides in Kota: New guidelines issued for coaching institutes

Jaipur: Rajasthan state commission for protection of child rights (RSCPCR) has issued guidelines for medical and engineering coaching institutes in the state, particularly Kota where several suicides by students have been reported in the recent past. Commission that was probing the causes of suicides has included 40 points of instructions for coaching institutes to follow.

Some of the points include:

• In advertisements, coaching institutes will have to write in bold letters that they don’t guarantee admission into medical and engineering colleges.
• Coaching institutes should install CCTVs and fire fighting equipment.
• Students should be given a diet chart so that they could be aware of their health
• A day in a week should be declared as a holiday. Coaching institutes should not hold any tests on that day.
• Students should be charged the fee in installments. Coaching institute should not ask students to pay the fee in one installment.
• Students who wants to drop out of the institute should be refunded the fee within three months.

Commission teams had visited coaching institute to probe their way of functioning after several students committed suicide allegedly over pressure of studies and poor performance in tests and entrance exams.

The commission has instructed the institutes to provide the guidelines free of cost to all their students at the time of admission.

“It would make students and their family members aware of their rights,” said commission chairperson Manan Chaturvedi.

The commission has instructed district administration to ensure that coaching institutes submit an affidavit proclaiming that they would follow these guidelines.

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