ABSTRACT
It is 6:00 p.m. on a Wednesday evening and in South Kolkata many students are waiting to enter a rather dingy looking ground-floor office in a nondescript apartment building. The children are around 8 to 9 years old and they are all tired from a long school day. Heavy looking backpacks, full of books, are strewn on the ground. The air is hot and muggy, and the noise from passing motorists and pedestrians, as well as local shoppers, is almost deafening. The children are, of course, attending an after-school private coaching college, specializing in English tuition. 1 The sign hanging precariously over the entrance “A-1 Coaching College: Your Passport to a Better Future” sums it up completely. Competition for places in the best schools, and thereafter colleges, in Kolkata is furious and only the top 10% of graduates will ever gain such places. English proficiency is essential for future college and professional success. This scene is repeated daily in Kolkata and in literally thousands of large and small towns across India. The commodification and privatization of education in the country is inexhaustible and demand easily exceeds supply, despite the relatively high costs of coaching for ordinary households, let alone for the poor and marginalized for whom such opportunities remain but a distant dream.
