FIITJEE Crisis: Students, Parents, and Teachers Left in Limbo as Coaching Giant Collapses

The once-revered FIITJEE, a premier coaching institute for IIT-JEE aspirants, is now facing a severe crisis—centre closures, unpaid salaries, and mounting legal troubles have left students, parents, and staff in distress. With police cases filed in multiple cities, mass teacher resignations, and financial instability, the future of thousands of students hangs in the balance.

A Dream Turned Nightmare for Students and Parents

Monika Agarwal* took a loan to pay ₹3.45 lakh for her son’s two-year FIITJEE programme in Ghaziabad. “We trusted their reputation, but now we feel cheated,” she says. Within months, teachers started quitting, classes became erratic, and the centre eventually shut down. Her son, now left without proper guidance, struggles to cope.

Gowri Bhadauria*, who narrowly missed the IIT-JEE cutoff this year, blames FIITJEE’s decline for her setback. “The centre became a ghost of its former self—no mentoring, no proper classes. We ended up studying on our own,” she recalls. “Choosing FIITJEE was the biggest mistake of my life.”

In Chennai, Bharadwaj Narayanan* paid ₹2.7 lakh for his son’s coaching, only to see the Velachery centre shut abruptly. FIITJEE shifted students to online classes, but even those teachers are now resigning. “We were promised continuity, but everything collapsed,” he says.

Teachers Unpaid, Yet Loyal Until the End

Gaurav Shrivastav from Jhansi, a Chemistry teacher at FIITJEE Ghaziabad, hasn’t received ₹11.73 lakh in pending salaries. “Some months, I got only 27% of my pay. I stayed for my students, but finally had to leave,” he shares. Like many others, he now works elsewhere but still mourns FIITJEE’s downfall.

Another senior teacher, who worked for over five years, reveals that financial troubles began as early as 2017. Salary cuts, unpaid dues, and mismanagement by franchise partners led to a slow decline. “The pandemic worsened it—low admissions, irresponsible partners, and no accountability,” he says.

Legal Troubles Mount as FIITJEE Remains Silent

With police cases in Delhi, Chandigarh, and Chennai, FIITJEE’s management is under scrutiny for alleged cheating and breach of trust. Yet, the institute has stayed silent, offering temporary fixes like online classes—only for those to fail as well.

Parents, desperate for justice, are filing complaints and legal notices. Some have shifted their children to other institutes, but many, already burdened with loans, have no choice but to let their kids prepare alone.

What Went Wrong?

Former staff point to multiple reasons—cash crunch, bad investments, franchise mismanagement, and a shift in business models. Despite Chairman Dinesh Kumar Goel’s push for a franchise system, the lack of transparency has deepened the crisis.

What’s Next?

With centres shutting down, teachers resigning, and no clarity from FIITJEE, students and parents are left in the lurch. Will the institute recover, or is this the end of an era?

For now, the dreams of thousands of IIT aspirants remain uncertain.