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FIITJEE, a prominent Indian coaching institute, faces turmoil as faculty resignations over unpaid dues lead to sudden closures across multiple cities, leaving students and parents in distress.
FIITJEE centres across Delhi-NCR and Uttar Pradesh have shut down.
Things have not been the same at FIITJEE, one of the oldest coaching institutes in Indian cities, with a growing unrest between the faculty and the management over “ghost teaching and subsequent unpaid dues” for over the past six months. This unfolded in a mass faculty resignation at several centres prompting sudden closure of operations, leaving students in limbo at the peak time of preparation when entrance exams are around.
Several Forum for Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (FIITJEE) centres across cities, including Delhi-NCR (Noida and Ghaziabad), Meerut, Varanasi, Lucknow, Pune and Kolkata, shut operations over the past week.
Several groups of parents, whose children are enrolled in the affected centres, have filed FIRs with the local police.
The sudden closure of operations at these centres prompted many parents to get their children enrolled at other institutes or edtech platforms, particularly those who are in the middle of preparing for the second session of JEE (Mains) scheduled in April. The first session of JEE (Mains) has just been concluded.
FIITJEE used to be go-to choice for engineering aspirants until recently. It was set up in 1991 by IIT-Delhi graduate DK Goel, the founding chairman and chief mentor of the institute.
News18’s attempts to reach Goel and other members of the institute’s management, including the CFO and Group FO over phone calls and emails have so far found no response. This story will be updated once, and if, a response is received.
‘Teachers ghosting classes’
Students and insiders at the institute revealed that teachers ghosting classes had become a major issue, which led to a tussle with the management that in turn put salaries on hold, and eventually to a mass faculty exit, some of whom joined other institutes for better offers and others who plan to open their own coaching venture.
“Over the past five to six months, there have been instances of faculty members who would just come in, punch their attendance, and leave, without teaching a single class across several centres. In some cases, this was prompted by other coaching giants attempting to poach faculty and later took advantage of the growing tussle between the teaching staff and the management that eventually led to the current situation,” said a FIITJEE member at one of these centres requesting anonymity.
Parents of students enrolled at several of these centres said that their children told them “teachers were not attending classes initially” and “later announced in class that they were resigning since their salaries remained unpaid”.
Priyanka Jain, parent of a student enrolled in the Rajnagar centre, Ghaziabad, said that for the past one and a half months, teachers at the institute would change frequently, almost every other week. “Then around mid-January, teachers announced to students in class that there may be no class at all then on since they were resigning as their salaries have not been paid by the institute. They also told students that it had been a few months that they have been mailing institute management over their dues but had got no response,” said Jain, whose daughter, a class 11 student, was enrolled in a two-year programme.
Jain, who has paid up a fee Rs 3.70 lakh for the programme, said her daughter’s future was at stake and that they wanted their money back.
“After the classes halted, we spoke to the institute’s CFO, who told us that he wasn’t aware if the institute was under any financial constraints. We also went to FIITJEE headquarters in Delhi’s Kalu Sarai where there was nobody available to guide us or address our concerns,” said Jain.
She also said that students were told by the three heads of departments (HoDs) that they together planned to open an institute of their own over the coming days, and if students wish they can join it.
‘Trust shaken; students bear trauma’
“My trust has been shaken, and now even if we must enrol our daughter elsewhere or in this new institute being opened by the FIITJEE teachers, it was hard to trust them. It’s not just the money but even students are under mental trauma because of what has happened,” said Jain.
Similarly, a FIITJEE centre located in South Kolkata, which was one of the most flourishing coaching centres in the area until 2023, shut down operations and “overnight without any notice merged into another coaching centre,” said a parent.
“My son has just written the JEE (Mains) exam this month. He has been aggrieved since the FIITJEE centre where he was enrolled did not do any assessments or proper mock tests that are done days before the exam. Students were left to themselves at this peak exam time when parents have already paid up the fees running into lakhs. This was the most disturbing aspect. He took private tuitions for which we had to pay another Rs 80,000 for each subject and attended online lectures to prepare for the exam. This was over and above the Rs 2.5 lakh fee we paid at FIITJEE,” said the Kolkata-based parent, who didn’t wish to be named.
She further said that her son had enrolled in a two-year programme at this FIITJEE centre in 2023, and after the initial three-four months, he told them that teachers would miss classes every other day and even the quality of teaching was going down. “A new teacher would come every other week, and they would not clear doubts. When students would cross question, they couldn’t answer for they themselves didn’t have their concepts clear. He was just not satisfied with the teaching there and eventually stopped going altogether. Even the mock tests and phase tests were cancelled frequently. One of the mock tests was held at a call centre, where they went in with their calling business in the background, which was most shocking. How can a study centre do this,” she asked.
Her son, 17, said that the teachers at the centre were frank in telling students that they were not teaching because their salaries had not been paid. “They had promised to complete the syllabus by October, but did so only by December 2024, and that too haphazardly. They could not explain concepts or clear doubts. There was no notice or nothing, but just a message received by some students on their e-mail on the day of the exam that FIITJEE will now be FIITJEE Aakash,” he said.
Even after turning into FIITJEE Aakash, he added, there were no notes or suggestions or notice of test schedule from them.
This is exactly what happened back in Noida Scetor-62 and Ghaziabad centres as well. Just a few days before the closure, students here were told to join classes at Aakash, another well-known coaching institute.
HR Kapoor, a resident of Ghaziabad and an advocate, whose grandson was enrolled at the Rajnagar centre, said that initially when a few teachers had left, the centre told them that teachers from their Noida branch would come and take classes. They did come once or twice and after that students were told that they could join the nearby Aakash coaching centre, however, with no clarity on the fees. “We have filed an FIR at the Kavi Nagar police station. We are doubtful that we will get the money back, but it is the precious time of students that has been lost, which is the main concern,” said Kapoor.
Amit Pandey, another parent based in Ghaziabad, who is also a complainant in the matter, said that regular classes had not been held at the centre for long. “The centre was arranging for teachers from here and there, who didn’t know about the students’ strengths or weaknesses. There was no continuity in the studies and suddenly one Saturday the teachers told students that they were resigning and that the centre may close afterwards. The way things have turned out has really left students in a trauma, who are just about to write their annual exams at school next month,” said Pandey.
He added that a day after the classes were halted, they went to the centre and met some staff, “who unofficially admitted that there were issues within the centre”.
“The management didn’t give us any clear answers. We tried reaching out to the centre head, he too refused to help and just told us that centre is closed. We are all middle-class people, and this has just been a waste of both time and resources,” said Pandey, who works in a private firm.
