You are the District Magistrate of a district, which is the hub of coaching centres for engineering as well as medical entrance exams. Recently, around 5 students have committed suicide owing to academic and social pressure. Students in the age group 15-18 years from across the country come to the district with the dream of getting admission into prestigious institutions like the IITs and AIIMS. However, the coaching institutes are business-minded and want to lure more students from their institute so that they can attract more students. They create a lot of pressure on students to perform, with differential treatment like forming different category of batches depending on students' performance. These students live as Paying Guests and in hostels away from their families and many cannot tackle the huge burden of competition and the associated mental stress. The recent spate of suicide by 5 students has been highlighted by the national media and you have been asked by the Chief Minister to present a report of the situation and take steps on the matter. The Chief Minister has also asked you to keep the matter away from limelight so that the coaching centres continue their business and generate revenue for themselves as well as the state. Upon investigation, you find out that 2-3 of the most famous coaching institutions are run by political leaders of the ruling party. Given the situation: (a) Highlight the stakeholders involved and discuss the associated ethical issues in the given case. (b) Given the situation, what will be your course of action? (c) Discussing the various reasons for increased cases of suicides among students, suggest measures to address the issue in the long-run. (Answer in 250 words)

You are the District Magistrate of a district, which is the hub of coaching centres for engineering as well as medical entrance exams. Recently, around 5 students have committed suicide owing to academic and social pressure. Students in the age group 15-18 years from across the country come to the district with the dream of getting admission into prestigious institutions like the IITs and AIIMS. However, the coaching institutes are business-minded and want to lure more students from their institute so that they can attract more students. They create a lot of pressure on students to perform, with differential treatment like forming different category of batches depending on students' performance. These students live as Paying Guests and in hostels away from their families and many cannot tackle the huge burden of competition and the associated mental stress. The recent spate of suicide by 5 students has been highlighted by the national media and you have been asked by the Chief Minister to present a report of the situation and take steps on the matter. The Chief Minister has also asked you to keep the matter away from limelight so that the coaching centres continue their business and generate revenue for themselves as well as the state. Upon investigation, you find out that 2-3 of the most famous coaching institutions are run by political leaders of the ruling party. They are involved in false advertisements in order to lure students. They also create undue pressure on the students to perform. Also, there is an emerging black market for performance enhancing drugs, which have become common among the students.

The above case represents the case of 'education system' in India. Over-emphasis on rote-learning, performance-orientation and hurting 'coaching culture' in the absence of holistic all-round development (emotional, psychological, physiological well-being), we have growing instances of: • Anxiety, stress • Depression • Lack of motivation • Drug abuse • Isolation • Extreme cases-suicide among youth

A Stakeholders and ethical issues: 1. Students: i Overburdened with academic and social pressure. ii Restlessness, pushes them into drug abuse iii Being robbed by coaching institutes - State results 2. Coaching Institutes: i Greed driven institutes - to generate profits ii Deceit by generating false advertisements iii Purporting unhealthy competition 3. Paying Guests & Hostels: i Unappetitive, dont live upto meet promise ii Dismal services 4. District Administration & Myself: i Ensure justice to victims ii Address the unethical teaching business flourishing iii To choose between - professional integrity & personal commitment