'Inflation and privatisation lead to increase in loan'

Mumbai: While talking to parents and students, who are the major stakeholders in educational loans, it is understood that the factors like ‘inflation’ and ‘privatisation’ is the major reasons why students have to depend on educational loans in order to enrol in their ‘dream colleges’ and coaching classes.

As per parents, a student is not fully prepared for exam by just attending the college lectures. Along with this, coaching classes these days have several mock exams and question paper dummy sets for the best of the students.

There is a kind of leisure when it comes to government colleges however the number of such colleges is less as compared to private colleges.

“For MBBS and MD courses, the vacancy of seats is listed both in government and private medical colleges. Students fight their way out to get a seat in former colleges but the number of seats (and the number of the colleges) forces them to opt for private colleges. If a government college takes around Rs 80,000 to 1.5 lakh for a year, a private college would charge above Rs 2.5 lakh for the same course,” Mukhta Upadhyay, a parent of a medical student said. According to her, fees is the main reason students prefer government colleges.

Rashmi Deshpande, another parent said, “A college classroom has around 50 to 60 students which is why teachers can’t attend each and every child. But in a coaching class, they give personalised attention to each student, which helps. Moreover, they give mock tests, question paper dummy, expert lectures which really helps a student to score better.”