Every year, nearly three lakh students flock to the city of Kota in Rajasthan, the coaching capital of the country. Almost half of them enroll themselves at Allen Career Institute, a 36 year-old pioneering coaching centre that was last valued at over 1 billion dollars.
Lately, Kota’s reputation has been under question because of the frequent student suicides.
This has obviously affected the number of students coming in and for the first time in its history, the coaching giant Allen is seeing a fall in its admissions. And its no small dip. Admissions have dropped by over 35% to around 80,000. But here’s the interesting part. This isn't restricted to Allen institute in kota alone. Its happening in other cities too.
Actually two years ago, VCl investment firm Bodhi Tree Systems came into the picture and Allen began expanding the number of campuses outside Kota. Now, in total, there are over 200 of them and at least, one-third are new. The company’s CEO Nitin Kukreja told The Ken that Allen entered 16 new cities like Patna and Lucknow last year alone. A senior teacher at Allen Kota told us that for a centre to be profitable, it needs at least 4,000–5,000 student enrolments. But right now, Allen is not even seeing half of this. At least half a dozen senior Allen staffers and competitors told The Ken that a big chunk of these new centers are losing money. Staff pays have taken a hit but Allen is also hiring staff in new cities with a possible plan of shifting base out of Kota.
In today’s episode we take a look at what’s happening inside one of the country’s latest test prep giants.
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