Formal education has always been the principal model through which societies educate their young. Today, however, schools are seen as non-analytical and are being replaced by logic-based approach of competitive examinations. In India, the growth of shadow education, which is preponderant at the level of secondary education, is providing informal avenues through which the youth garner knowledge and skills. One such avenue is the private coaching for the Joint Entrance Exam to enter into the premier Indian Institute of Technology(s). The article draws on an exploratory study carried out in the city of Delhi and examines the credentialing strategies of IIT aspirants through Joint Entrance Exam coaching and how the pedagogical practices of coaching institutes influence the perceptions and proclivities of aspirants and their families towards school education. I also discuss the policy implications of such practices for formal schooling.

The higher education system in India is creating newer structures of hierarchy and differentiation to become distinct. This is largely due to the rising demand for professional education, the returns of which are perceived to be higher than a general degree. Middle-class families have always operated within distinctive structural frameworks to contest for social cachet through education. In India, one such arena is the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). To determine who is meritorious enough to secure an IIT seat, the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) has become the arbiter where merit is the relative rank of contestants and shadow education a key training site to ace the JEE. This article is based on a sociological analysis of family credentialing strategies around shadow education that prepares aspirants for the IIT-JEE. Drawing on an analysis of the middle class in Delhi, I discuss how these strategies are feeding fodder to the aspirants’ dream of pursuing an IIT degree and exacerbating educational stratification. I also show how the private coaching market in India reinforces this divide by way of a segregation policy which incentivises a few to secure higher ranks in the JEE.