Click to play videoKota: A nondescript town in Rajasthan is Mecca for students trying to crack engineering and medical entrance exams. Education is a business in Kota and now even Korean firms are setting up shops there.
Manpreet Dhanjal once studied at Welhams Dehradun, which is one of the coolest schools in India. She left after tenth standard and came to Kota in Rajasthan. Instead of school, she now attends tutorial classes. Living alone, studying 12 to 16 hours a day, Manpreet dreams of getting into IIT.
"The kind of zeal you see here, the competition in the Kota air, is something you see nowhere else in India," Dhanjal said.
A teacher at the Etoos Academy Navneet Jethwani said, "Kota is not a happening town. The only form of entertainment here is to study."
1,20,000 students come to Kota every year, for crack courses to help them clear entrance exams. The market is so lucrative that even Etoos, a Korean education firm has set up shop there.
Etoos Academy Director Sung Jin Kang said, "Usually, students take what a coaching centre offers without any choice of their own. But at Etoos, students pick the teachers they want to study under. They get individual coaching in a class that matches their level and time schedule. Soon, we will start online coaching for IIT."
Twenty five-year-old Bansal Tutorials is the giant of Kota town. It has 15,000 and corners almost a quarter of the seats at IIT every year. One reason could be its teachers, who command a fan following across Kota.
The head of Human Resources at Bansal Tutorials Ambarish Kumar Tiwari said, "A good teacher with three to four years of experience earns Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 lakh per annum. Some of the new institutes pay Rs 1-2 crore to their teachers."
In spite of the teachers' best efforts, the relentless competition in Kota can be scary.
"It's so easy to get distracted. You miss a week of lectures and it's like Kota is gone from your life.," said an IIT aspirant.
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