Mohit Bhargava is among those who are being accused of cheating or betrayal. One of Kota’s most distinguished physics teachers, Bhargava taught at the city’s largest coaching center, Allen Career Institute, for 14 years—until he decided to quit in June and joined edtech firm Unacademy, which has led India There is a huge boom in offline coaching. Kota and backed by global venture capital firms Sequoia, Tiger Global, SoftBank,
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The new Unacademy Center where Bhargava meets us is a wonderful centre. The cubicles are brightly lit, and the atmosphere is more relaxed than in Allen, where teachers, students, and staff all wear the same uniform, where girls and boys have to take separate stairs, and tighter posters tell students. Warns against the temptations of movies and mobiles. ,
Bhargava is wearing a black Unacademy T-shirt with jeans. The Apple Watch on the 41-year-old’s wrist is a constant buzzword as we speak. “Unacademy approached me in April asking me to be a part of their core team and teach physics to IIT aspirants. I’ve been thinking of leaving for some time. It is the teachers who train the students to crack the IIT exams and they need to be heard. I refused the counter offer, took Allen’s blessings and left within a week,” says Bhargava.
His exit focused on the poaching wars in Coaching City.
According to Naveen Maheshwari, one of Allen’s directors, Bhargava was not alone – he was left with 40 other teachers. “We trained them and they left with a few days notice. we hear the annual salary of More than 20 crores are being offered to these teachers. Do the VC firms supporting these online centers know that their money is being used to pay teachers? Maheshwari says angrily. Unacademy did not respond to questions about how many Allen teachers it has hired. In June, it announced its plans to enroll 15,000 students in the first batch of offline centers in nine cities.
Allen is the biggest player in Kota, with 22 large multi-storey centers where thousands of students train for 18 hours a day for tests. A record 1.25 lakh students are expected to enroll this year – over 70% of the students in Kota. But it is grappling with the challenge thrown by Unacademy.
Last month, Allen served legal notices to at least 20 teachers who jumped at Unacademy, alleging breach of contract. According to Allen & Unacademy officials, who did not wish to be named, some cases have been dismissed by a Jaipur court, but the matter is yet to be resolved. Bhargava was one of those taken to court, Mint learned.
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Bhargava denies that he has been hired at an astronomical salary of Rs. 20 crore annually. “Yes, I will be paid many times more than what I used to earn, but it is not that much. Allen also hired me in 2008 from Bansal sir’s institute (VK Bansal’s Bansal Classes) for 2-3 times the salary. So, what have I done wrong now?” Bhargava asks.
teacher vs teacher
The fight for teachers is really about the students.
This year, around 2 lakh students are expected to come to the city to train for tests that have opened doors for middle class ambitions for decades- JEE Main, JEE Advanced (for IIT admissions) and NEET. (For Medical Admission). The silence of the two-year pandemic, when coaching institutes were forced to move online and when students were groomed for edtech firms, appears to be the case. As students return to classes, Unacademy and Physicswallah have turned to offline mode, but there is not enough time to train teachers. Hence. mad rush.
As anxious parents and students arrive at Kota Railway Station every day, even reputed institutions like Allen cannot afford to lose prized teachers. As anyone familiar with Kota’s history will know, it is followed by an exodus of students, a leak that turns into a flood.
And so, as soon as a student lands at Kota Railway Station, the coaching industry kicks in. Everyone is involved, from rickshaw-pullers paying students directly to coaching centres, to hostels that take deductions from institutions for prioritizing their students. “Rickshaw walas get it” 500 to take the parents to the institute and 3,000 if admission takes place. There is a similar agreement between hostels and coaching institutes, said Rajesh, a rickshaw puller.
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Today the leading coaching institutes in Kota are Allen Career Institute, Vibrant Academy, Motion Education, Resonance EduVenture, Trusted Institute (now supported by Allen), BYJU-owned Aakash Institute, Career Point, Unacademy, PhysicsWallah (PW) and Bansal Classes.
The entry of new players appears to have sparked an unofficial price war as well. Students have told Mint that ed-tech firms like Unacademy are promising to absorb students from older and more prominent coaching centers at a discounted fee – if they move on.
Students usually have to pay between 1.2 lakh more 1.5 lakh for one year. If the student decides to leave the center within the first 15 days, he/she will have to pay 15% of the fees. However, if the student shows the payment slip to Unacademy, he gets enrolled for at least 5,000 per year. Both students and teachers said that PW is also offering deep discounts similar to Unacademy. Unacademy and PhysicsWallah did not respond to Mint’s questions about this.
For students, this all means more choices—and some confusion. Kanishk Nagar, who has moved from Baran, 80 km from Kota, to study for his IIT entrance exam, said, “My teacher is still with Allen, so I will continue my studies here.” His brother is studying in Resonance; The two decide to study at different coaching centers to get the best of Kota. Like many families, Kanishk’s mother decides to move to Kota with her children while his father runs a shop in Baran.
other players
The silence is terrifying compared to the echoes of classrooms elsewhere. Here, in this building, Sameer Bansal teaches a handful of students- a far cry from the time when Bansal Classes were meant for the best candidates of IIT-JEE. Sameer’s father, a former IITian who passed away last year, founded Bansal Classes in 1984. It is said that most of the coaching centers established in Kota are branches of Bansal Classes, as the teachers were either students or were trained by ‘Bansal Sirs’. , “D2 has happened to Bansal sir many times before,” says Sameer, referring to the many teachers who jumped ship and started their own academy or joined others.
Like Pramod Maheshwari, who was tutored by Bansal ‘Sir’ and who founded Career Point in 1993. Textile engineers at IIT-Delhi are also troubled by the ongoing tussle between the institutes. He says he has lost the teachers of Career Point to Physicswala, which he says is offering coaching to students for an annual fee. 35,000, but choosing teachers at a higher salary. one of his teachers who earned Physicswala was hired for 5 lakhs per annum 45 lakhs, they say. Pramod says, “Not just the faculty, even the admin staff is being snatched away. The story of Kota cannot be about this new rivalry. Competition has always been there but now it has become filthy.” A Physicswala spokesperson did not respond to a query emailed by Mint.
The annual salary of a Kota teacher is 5 lakhs to few crores depending on experience and popularity. But the current payment is not sustainable, Pramod says. He wants to create a new business model where students do not have to pay high annual fees. “You can train them here 45,000 per year. There is a need to maximize the salary of teachers 1.5 million. There are good teachers who may not be famous, but will get the job done,” he says.
old game new rules
In 1988, Rajesh Maheshwari started the Allen Career Institute—the name is a catchy version of the initials of his father, LN Maheshwari. It is still run by four brothers- Rajesh, Govind, Naveen and Brajesh Maheshwari.
So far, it’s Goliath in this fight. From 90,000 students in 2020, 1.25 lakh students are expected to register for their classes this year. Industry observers say Allen continues to aces. It has a few decades of teaching behind it and the game has been played many times before.
But it has realized that it needs deep pockets to compete with VC-funded startups. For example, Unacademy was valued at $3.4 billion at the latest fundraise that closed in August 2021. However, on Monday, founder Gaurav Munjal informed his employees that the company would go for a round of cost restructuring and adopt austerity.
Allen recently offered its 36 percent stake to Bodhi Tree Systems, an equally owned joint venture between James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems and former Walt Disney Asia Pacific chief Uday Shankar, for $600 million.
To retain faculty, he or she will have to increase salaries and give teachers a bigger share of the pie through employee stock options, or ESOPs. Late this June, Allen changed from a family-run business to a privately held company and is now Allen Career Institute Pvt Ltd.
“We will also give ESOPs to our teachers. Let Allan be the best paid one in Kota.” He claims that many teachers have rejected rivals’ offers even after signing contracts. “One was dragged into our office by his wife to apologize. It is like a family. But it must be remembered that when you are in the army, medicine or education, no one can break discipline,” he says.
As he leaves his office, a student and his father bend over to touch their feet. He blesses them and goes into the past. It is 7 o’clock in the evening, the entrance counter at Allen is currently closed. But outside, in the dream city of IIT-JEE, parents and students are still on the hunt.