File picture of students browsing through leaflets of coaching centres in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, March 4: The state government has banned coaching centres from distributing publicity materials to students during the ongoing matriculation exams.

These private institutes have also been banned from putting up promotional banners outside various exam centres.

The school and mass education department has asked all district education officers to take immediate steps and prohibit such activities in front of the gates, boundary walls and prohibited areas of the exam centres.

People hired by such organisations can be seen distributing leaflets and fancy brochures to students coming out of the exam halls. Tuition is primarily offered for competitive exams such as JEE (Mains).

“This not only creates unnecessary crowd and disturbance, but also results in dilution of attention of the examinees,” said a senior official of the department.

An official said that such activities by coaching centres confuse students in the middle of the exam.

“There are people handing over different materials at the same time that make competing claims. It is obviously confusing,” said the official.

The government stepped in after it received complaints from parents and board officials visiting the exam centres.

“Daily we are given bunch of papers. It’s irritating. Some students ignore them, but others forget their exam on hand and get engrossed with the publicity materials. It affects our concentration,” said Jyotsna, a student.

She said that one of the executives of a private coaching centre started calling her friends in a bid to convince them to join the institute. “These people are so pro-active that they want call on the parents of the students to get their children enrolled,” said Tanmay, another student.

Teachers said that with the new entrance procedures and the weightage given to Plus Two results, there was no reason why students should at all opt for coaching classes offered by these institutes.

Only last week the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has banned all its affiliated schools from running integrated courses that include coaching for competitive examinations for admission into technical institutions. “The board came up with this order after parents, teachers, students and the public in general expressed serious concern about the trend. Appropriate action will be taken against schools found violating the guidelines,” CBSE regional director,” A.S. Verma said.