Congress questions Centre’s free coaching plan, cites poor record of existing scheme

Citing the government’s poor record in implementing an existing free coaching scheme, the Congress on Friday (August 28, 2026) questioned the Centre’s decision to provide free online coaching to students.

In a post on X, Congress communication chief Jairam Ramesh said Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had, at the “Chhatron Ki Goonj” event in Kota on June 17, highlighted the growing dependence of Indian families on coaching centres and argued that an “extractive coaching industry” had supplanted the public education system.

Mr. Gandhi had pointed out that Indian families were spending 2.5 times more on coaching centres than the Union government invests in education, Mr. Ramesh said.

He claimed that the disclosure had “forced” Prime Minister Narendra Modi to announce free online coaching for students in his Independence Day address on August 15, “in a desperate attempt to escape growing public pressure”.

However, the Congress general secretary questioned the government’s ability to deliver on the promise, citing the latest report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment, tabled on August 10.

According to Mr. Ramesh, the Ministry of Social Justice had set a target of enrolling 10,500 candidates under its existing free coaching scheme over three years, but had enrolled only 2,790 students — about 26% of the target.

He also said the allocation for the scheme had declined each year and that the government’s expenditure last year was less than half the budgeted amount.

“Rather than fundamentally fix India’s broken education system or re-invest in public education, the Prime Minister has decided to instead invest public resources in online coaching,” Mr. Ramesh said.

He termed the proposed initiative an “accountability-evading gimmick” and said the government’s record showed that it had “little capacity to implement this scheme successfully”.