Free online coaching from the government will not displace private test preparation, Aakash Educational Services (AESL) MD and CEO Sekhar Garisa said on Monday, even as he welcomed the proposal and offered to work with the government on it.
“Good schools, colleges, and test prep centres will never go out of work in a country like ours where competition is very high and quality education and a college degree is the route for many folks in the country to achieve success in life,” he said, adding that demand from ‘the most serious aspirants who want to give themselves the best chance at success’, will remain intact.
On the government’s plan to democratise access to test preparation, he said the company was ‘happy to contribute’, adding that they ‘welcome the move to create a more level playing field’.
He described Aakash as ‘the oldest and largest test prep and a responsible partner to the government in this mission that we should make education more affordable’.
The comments come after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced from the Red Fort on August 15 that the government will provide free online coaching for competitive examinations, saying the coaching race had become a burden on poor and middle-class families.
Modi said the scheme would combine India’s digital public infrastructure with its teachers to build a nationwide free coaching network. The announcement followed nationwide student protests over the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak, which led to the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan last month.
Asked whether the plan would narrow the gap between students who can afford coaching and those who cannot, Garisa said it would, and pointed to the company’s own scholarship spending.
Aakash extended scholarships worth Rs 750 crore last year, he said, along with special scholarships for more than 11,000 students from armed forces, police and defence families. He also said the company runs low-cost online programmes alongside its intensive offline courses, “depending on the needs of the students and the affordability of the students”.
He was responding to questions from the media at the launch of ANTHE 2026, the company’s scholarship-cum-talent hunt exam, which drew about 1.8 million registrations last year. This edition carries Rs 2.5 crore in cash prizes and scholarships of up to 100%, with thisnyear’s online test running October 27 to November 1 and offline tests on October 11, October 25 and November 1.