Delhi’s Own Kota

The Asian Age.  | Ankita Srivastawa

Life, More Features

While in reel life, Kota Factory is ruling a million hearts, the scenario in real life is quite different.

The Kota Factory poster

Over the years, CA, CS, and CMA have gained a created some buzz for their courses, the overdue times students take to complete the whole path to eventually be at a good position after a lot of work. It has become a game of survival and many attempts over the years till one succeeds.

No doubt only the best ones make it at the end with all the inputs. But the undying zest of the many aspirants makes it possible to wake them up the next morning and attend over 6 to 10 hours of coaching classes on a daily basis.

Though the ICAI, ICSI and ICMAI (the headquarters of the respective courses) have provided for the classes but the aspirants prefer private coaching centres and tutors to prepare for the exams. All of the above courses take plenty of time, energy and the willingness of the aspirants to take this as a career option. It is a type of dedicated study, with reputable jobs as well as the pressure of growing within the duration. So do the aspirants really comprehend the courses and how much time does one take to complete a course and bag a job? After becoming a CA, CS or CMA there is a lot of great power, importance, knowledge, contacts, good earnings and a better life a person can get.  But the process is much more extensive. There are three levels to become a CA, CS or CMA aspirant: foundation, intermediate, and final. These three break into more sub-parts respectively, with the three-year internship period adjoined to it. But is that it? Does everybody opting for these courses make it? No! The dereliction for these courses is much more outrageous than the positivity. But why do students still apply on an enormous scale around the country for these exams,  and why is there a lot of fanaticism for these courses?

Does every single aspirant have a passion towards these courses? Or are they pressurised by their family to do as some of their brothers or relatives are doing?

The biggest hub in Delhi for CA, CS, and CMA coaching centres is in Laxmi Nagar, where students from all over India come to study. Anyone who stays in or comes to visit Laxmi Nagar can definitely see lot of hoardings of different coaching centers — PG’s all around and almost everywhere. There are some famous coaching centres in Laxmi Nagar which has a good name like Toppers Institute, Bright Vision Academy, NKJ Classes, AKM Institute, Aldine CA and many more. These centres hire the best teachers for  students who study there.  Knowledge and a great amount of assistance is provided by the teachers.

These courses are not only hard to study, but are also not affordable. Aspirants not only take a chance with their careers but also invest a good amount of money. Students spend more than Rs 20,500 as the fees of the coaching centers as course fees.

When a student was asked about when he decided to choose chartered accountancy as a career, one of the aspirants, Rounak Khandelwal, said that, “I didn’t have many options previously, nor did I know any, therefore, everyone I knew was going for CA, so being clueless, I was driven by the choices of others. But since I started taking coaching classes, I cleared my foundation level in just one attempt. Now I have my intermediate preparations going on, and hope to clear that too in one attempt.” On being asked about the amount of time he puts in his preparation, he replies, “On normal days, I study for two to three hours a day and on exam time, five to six hours a day.” On the issue of  students who still apply after numerous attempts, he opines, “I think there are a lack of options for good jobs, so people still go for it. So those who have already invested their time in it don’t want to make it go to waste.”

While in reel life, Kota Factory is ruling a million hearts, the scenario in real life is quite different.

Students often do not decide what they aim to pursue in life and as an obvious result, they lose their paths while being confused about what they want.

Kota Factory definitely depicts the struggles of ambitious students and over-enthusiastic parents, but Laxmi Nagar proves that there are innumerable Kota Factories scattered across the country.

On the other hand, the trailer of Super 30 is out. It is hard to come across such stories, where the coaching centres teach the children for free or give some compensation  to those who deserve the opportunities yetcannot afford the preps.

“Basically, it is a business where teachers come to teach for the sake of giving some knowledge or needed assistance to students. But just for the sake of teaching, because its their job”, he adds.

On the other hand, one of the CS aspirants, Puja Khandelwal says, “In my coaching centre, teachers are really helpful, they provide great assistance to the students and often check on them. Because I didn’t study much this time, I won’t be able to clear my intermediate exams, but now I know my loopholes and will surely work on them.”

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