Gandhinagar: Nearly one in five students in Gujarat, from pre-primary to higher secondary levels, attend private coaching classes, according to the Union government’s Comprehensive Modular Survey: Education, 2025.

The report highlights that 20.8% of students up to Class XII take private coaching in the state, lower than the national average of 27%. Gujarat ranks 16th among states and Union Territories, while Tripura (78.6%), West Bengal (74.6%), and Odisha (57.1%) top the list. Mizoram (2.4%), Ladakh (2.8%), and Chhattisgarh (4.5%) have the lowest percentages.

The report notes that Gujarat has about 1.2 crore students enrolled in over 32,000 government schools, 5,000 grant-in-aid institutions, and 15,000 private schools. Surprisingly, even pre-primary students are being sent to coaching, with 4.4% of those in junior and senior KG enrolled in private tuitions. At higher levels, the trend grows—18.1% of primary students (Classes 1–5), 21.5% of middle-level (Classes 6–8), 31.4% of secondary (Classes 9–10), and 35.5% of higher secondary students (Classes 11–12) take extra coaching.

Educationists attribute this reliance on private tuition to a shift in classroom teaching, where completing the syllabus often takes precedence over ensuring conceptual clarity. Rising competition, exam pressure, and lack of parental involvement due to work commitments also push families towards private coaching. DeshGujarat