Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar has issued a sharp critique of India’s coaching centre ecosystem, describing it as a “menace” that has transformed into “poaching centres” and “black holes for talent in regimented silos.” Addressing the fourth convocation of the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Kota, he said the mushrooming of coaching centres is deeply concerning and must be urgently addressed to protect the future of India’s youth.
He stated that sovereignty in the digital age will not be lost through invasions but through dependence on foreign digital infrastructure. Nations, he said, are no longer compromised by armies but by algorithms. He warned that reliance on imported technology-driven equipment, especially in critical sectors like defence, could render India vulnerable to external control and disruption.
Calling for a new vision of patriotism, Dhankhar declared that technological leadership is the new frontier of nationalism. He urged India to become a world leader in technology and emphasised that the battleground of the 21st century is no longer land or sea, but code, cloud and cyber. He said that India must rise as the architect of its own digital destiny and influence the destiny of other nations.
He urged coaching centres to transform into skill centres and use their infrastructure to promote practical learning. He cited the Gurukul tradition depicted in the Indian Constitution and called for a return to the ethos of knowledge donation. He warned that the obsession with perfect grades and standardised scores has compromised curiosity, which he described as an inalienable facet of human intelligence. He said that coaching centres robotise students and stymie their thinking, leading to psychological problems.
Dhankhar told students that their marksheets and grades will not define them, and that their knowledge and thinking minds will be the true measure of their success in the competitive world. He criticised digital tools that fail to serve rural India, exclude regional languages or ignore the disabled, calling them incomplete and unjust.
He called on India’s youth to become conscious keepers of the tech world and build Bharatiya systems for Bharatiya users, with the potential to globalise them. He said India must not remain a passive user of borrowed technologies and should instead export its own innovations. He noted that the technology gap between India and the world has narrowed from decades to weeks and that India must seize this momentum.
He condemned the assembly-line culture in education, saying it is dangerous and contrary to the spirit of the National Education Policy. He criticised the use of money for billboard and newspaper advertisements by coaching centres, calling it a misuse of funds that are often sourced from loans or hard-earned savings.
Dhankhar concluded by warning against the cramming culture, which he said turns vibrant minds into mechanical repositories of temporary information. He said cramming creates memory without meaning and adds degrees without depth, resulting in intellectual zombies rather than creative thinkers.
The convocation was attended by Haribhau Kisanrao Bagde, Governor of Rajasthan, Lt. Gen. A.K. Bhatt, Chairperson of the Board of Governors, Director N.P. Padhy and other dignitaries.
