Kota's largest coaching centre, Allen, slashes salaries, student admission drops

livemint.com:

Mint. Since Allen faculty never had a variable component, about 600 teachers had sent a letter to the institute earlier this month. "We have been a part of this prestigious organization since the competitors tried to woo us away or dilute the business you have built so passionately...

We acknowledge that the Kota Centre is facing challenges such as declining enrollment this year... But this decision to cut salaries has shocked us. Salary cuts not only affect us financially but also affect our mental state...," they said in the letter sent to the institute.

Mint has seen a part of the letter that was written in Hindi. Allen did not immediately reply to queries sent late Tuesday. Admissions in Kota typically stretch from December to June.

According to faculty members across coaching centres at Kota, the reason for the decline in student enrollments is multi-pronged. During the expansion phase a few years ago, these institutes had opened centres in other cities of Bihar and Rajasthan, and parents now prefer sending their children to ones that are closer home than Kota. The worrying cases of suicides by students in Kota is another concern flagged by parents, said faculty members.

Mint spoke to couple of other faculty members and rival coaching institutes who too acknowledged that this will be the start of a phase in Kota where teachers will face more salary cuts and the market will not be able to absorb them. Until two years ago, just after the first two waves of the pandemic ebbed, institutes in Kota started a fierce war by poaching faculty and students from one another offering reduced enrolment fees for students and higher salaries for teachers . The U-turn in salaries is a stark contrast to the 2x-3x offers rolled out in