Can free public technology break the private coaching industry?

What happened: free public online coaching using India’s digital public infrastructure

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day announcement promised free online coaching for competitive exams using India’s digital public infrastructure. The announcement sparked debate after student anger connected to the NEET paper leak, and the central question became whether free public technology can dismantle the current dependence on private elite coaching. The discussion in The Hindu (Parley conversation moderated by Maitri Porecha) weighed two linked ideas:

1) improving equity in competitive preparation by reducing the role of income and access to elite centres; and 2) redesigning delivery so students get coaching-like outcomes, not only free content.

Background and earlier position: private coaching as an education ecosystem

Private coaching for national-level entrance exams (including UPSC, JEE, and NEET) has not only been about video lectures. The discussion highlights that coaching organisations often provide a structured learning environment, routine practice, doubt-resolution channels, and regular assessments. Two participant perspectives use this background differently:

- Buddha Chandrasekhar treats the announcement as a possible shift towards greater equity and argues that success should depend less on income, geography, and access to elite locations. - Anubhav Shrivastava argues that the education system’s dependence on coaching is structural, and that free lecture access alone may not break that dependence if coaching-like scaffolding is missing.