The introduction of the Assam Coaching Institutes (Control and Regulation) Bill, 2025, in the state assembly is a timely and laudable move by the state government. The bill seeks to regulate private coaching centres to ensure quality education for competitive exam aspirants. Strict enforcement of the proposed law will be crucial to protect students from exploitation by profit-driven private coaching institutes in the name of grooming them for competitive examinations. The lack of an oversight mechanism has allowed unregulated growth of coaching institutes in the state, which is also a country-wide phenomenon. Some of these institutes make misleading promises of ensuring good ranks in competitive examinations to parents and students and charge exorbitant fees for courses. Many parents, with the hope of their children cracking highly competitive examinations for higher education in engineering, medical and other professional careers or civil services and other recruitment examinations, enrol them in these institutes but have no means of verifying the authenticity of such claims. Enabling parents and students to take informed decisions to choose the right coaching institute will be possible only when the mushrooming of coaching institutes is checked through regulatory measures by the government. Key provisions of the bill include mandatory registration, which will require existing and new institutes to register within a stipulated time before operating. Institutes must submit information on curriculum, schedule, fees, infrastructure, and staff qualifications and follow standards for safety, qualified staff, and student space and avoid false claims. It also seeks to enforce a code of conduct for coaching institutes for transparency in fees and student outcomes. The provision for mandatory mental health workshops and counselling by the institutes will be critical for reducing stress of students. The bill also makes it mandatory for supporting marginalized groups and providing disability-friendly facilities. Inspection of the coaching institutes by district authorities, as provided in the bill, will be critical for enforcement of the proposed regulatory regime. The “Guidelines for Registration and Regulation of Coaching Centre 2024” issued by the Education Ministry also pointed out that the number of unregulated private coaching centres in the country continues to grow in the absence of any laid-down policy or regulation. The guidelines make it mandatory that coaching centres shall conduct coaching classes in a way that it is not excessive for a student, and it should not be more than five hours in a day, and the coaching hours should neither be too early in the morning nor too late in the evening. It stipulates that the government shall create a web portal/online mechanism to facilitate the registration of coaching centres in a faceless manner with minimum human interface. Conditions for Registration included in the guidelines are : no coaching centre shall - engage tutors having qualification less than graduation; make misleading promises or guarantee of rank or good marks to parents/students for enrolling them in the coaching centre; enrol student below 16 years of age or the student enrolment should be only after secondary school examination; publish or cause to be published or take part in the publication of any misleading advertisement relating to any claim, directly or indirectly, of quality of coaching or the facilities offered therein or the result procured by such coaching centre or the student who attended such class. The central government’s guidelines also categorically state that if the student has paid for the course in full and is leaving the course in the middle of the prescribed period, the student will be refunded from out of the fees deposited earlier for the remaining period on a pro-rata basis within 10 days. If the student is staying in the hostel of the coaching centre, then the hostel fees and mess fee, etc., will also be refunded. Incorporating these provisions in the rules to be framed under the enactment of the proposed bill tabled by the state government will give more teeth to the enforcement authorities. More students from the state cracking the all-India competitive examinations to help them pursue dream career goals also require strengthening the foundational learning as envisaged in the National Education Policy 2020. The NEP lays focus on “regular formative assessment for learning rather than the summative assessment that encourages ‘coaching culture’.” If the educational institutions fail to provide quality education, the demand for coaching institutes will continue to grow even under a regulatory framework. The NEP 2020 suggests reform in the existing system of board and entrance examinations to eliminate the need for undertaking coaching classes. In respect of university entrance examinations, the policy states that such examinations shall test conceptual understanding and the ability to apply knowledge and shall aim to eliminate the need for taking coaching for these exams. Government educational institutions ensuring quality teaching and learning ecosystems need to be equally prioritised along with the enforcement of the proposed regulatory regime to curb the mushrooming of coaching institutes in the state.