The amount of money being spent on private coaching by Indian households will be a concern to policymakers, with India seeing a boom in online and offline classes in recent years. (Representational image/File)Almost half of all urban Indian students in the 11th and 12th standard have taken private coaching classes in the current academic year, according to a new survey by the statistics ministry released. As per the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s (MoSPI) Comprehensive Modular Survey: Education, released on Tuesday, 44.6 per cent of all urban students in the higher secondary segment were taking or had taken private coaching during the year, with the proportion for rural areas lower at 33.1 per cent. On the whole, 37 per cent of all Indian students in classes 11th and 12th took private coaching this year.In terms of expenditure, urban students in classes 11th and 12th are spending Rs 9,950 per year on average on private coaching, more than twice as much as their rural counterparts, who are spending Rs 4,548. At an all-India level, the average expenditure per student on private coaching in the higher secondary segment is Rs 6,384, survey data showed.The amount of money being spent on private coaching by Indian households will be a concern to policymakers, with India seeing a boom in online and offline classes in recent years amid a race to secure high marks and coveted seats in the top educational institutions of the country. As per data provided by the education ministry in July 2024 to the Rajya Sabha, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from coaching institutions had risen to Rs 5,517.45 crore in 2023-24, more than double the Rs 2,240.73 crore collected in 2019-20.As per MoSPI’s most recent Household Consumer Expenditure Survey (HCES), released last year, the annual consumption expenditure of Indian households in rural areas in 2023-24 was Rs 49,464. Urban households, meanwhile, spent Rs 83,952 on average in a year on all goods and services. As such, households whose children are in 11th and 12th may be spending as much as 9-12 per cent of their annual consumption expenditure just on private coaching classes, per calculations by The Indian Express.As per the 2023-24 HCES, ‘education’ accounted for 3.24 per cent of rural households’ monthly per capita consumption expenditure, almost half the urban households’ figure of 5.97 per cent.Across all levels, the MoSPI survey data released on Tuesday showed 27 per cent of all Indian students were taking or had taken private coaching during the year, with the proportion being higher in urban areas at 30.7 per cent compared to 25.5 per cent in rural areas. In terms of the costs, the average annual household expenditure on private coaching per student in urban areas was Rs 3,988, Rs 1,793 in rural areas, and Rs 2,409 at a national level.The survey, part of the 80th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS), was conducted during April-June and covered 52,085 households in total – 28,401 in rural areas and 23,684 in urban areas – with data collected from 57,742 students currently enrolled in schools across India. “Although the survey mainly aims to generate national-level estimates to support the requirements of the Department of School Education and Literacy, wherever possible, disaggregated estimates at the sub-national level have also been presented in the report,” MoSPI said.Story continues below this adTo be sure, the survey does not cover private coaching for skills such as coding and foreign language classes or extracurricular activities like art, dance, music, and sports.The last time a survey on household consumption of education was conducted was from July 2017 to June 2018, which showed that 19.8 per cent of students attended private coaching centres. However, the statistics ministry cautioned on Tuesday that the findings of that survey “cannot be directly compared” with those of the latest one as anganwadi centres were previously not classified under pre-primary education and expenditures on school education earlier included private coaching.Transport more expensive than uniformsPrivate coaching classes apart, school-going children spent as little as Rs 2,639 in a year on a government school education in rural areas to as high as Rs 35,758 in unaided private schools in urban areas.“Across all types of schools, the highest average expenditure per student during the current academic year was on course fees (Rs 7,111), followed by textbooks and stationery (Rs 2,002) at the all-India level,” MoSPI said, adding that urban households pay “significantly more across all categories”.Story continues below this adParents, interestingly, spend more on getting their kids to and from school than on uniforms. As per the survey, households expect to spend Rs 1,842 in the academic year on transportation as against Rs 1,070 on uniforms.Siddharth Upasani is a Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. He reports primarily on data and the economy, looking for trends and changes in the former which paint a picture of the latter. Before The Indian Express, he worked at Moneycontrol and financial newswire Informist (previously called Cogencis). Outside of work, sports, fantasy football, and graphic novels keep him busy. ... Read More© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:tuition