The abrupt closure of FIITJEE centres across the country was not “its own decision”, but a result of “overnight desertion by centre managing partners along with the entire team”, the coaching institute that prepares JEE aspirants said on Saturday.
The institute alleged that it was a “victim of exploitation” by managing partners, which worsened its financial situation, and announced plans to pursue legal action against competitors for poaching its faculty.
“FIITJEE has not closed any centre as part of its own decision. Overnight desertion of the centre, by the centre managing partner, along with the entire team, is the only reason for this force majeure type of condition,” the institute said in a statement.
“The present turmoil in the institution is temporary. Company officials are working to resume operations at all places within a reasonable time,” it said.
Also Read | Parents fume at FIITJEE , throng closed centres in Noida, Ghaziabad
According to FIITJEE, the managing partners receive a regular salary and participate in profit-sharing. FIITJEE’s financial situation “worsened” in January 2024 due to “mismanagement and exploitation” by the managing partners, it said.
“Owing to mismanagement and exploitation by managing partners, FIITJEE’s financial situation worsened in January 2024,” it said.
“Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) forecast that after six months, the company might run into operational cash crunch. In February 2024, the company questioned the core group as well as all managing partners and told them to optimise the excess manpower, improve the work culture, and clearly outlined the strategy for bouncing back from the situation, so that their respective centres start operating without causing further losses,” FIITJEE said.
Also Read | Closure of several FIITJEE centres leaves students in lurch
The closures of FIITJEE centres in Noida, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Lucknow and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, and one centre each in Bhopal, Patna, and Delhi came after a raft of teachers resigned from these centres over the non-payment of salaries and better offers from other institutes.
The sudden downturn has affected at least 3,500 students, who were relying on the institute that made a name for itself training young teenagers to ace competitive engineering and medical examinations.
According to the coaching institute, most of the managing partners did not take any action and some of them “exploited” the situation to “gain unfair advantage” by “halting” admissions which “exacerbated the financial crunch”.
Despite the institute’s promises of resuming classes within a “reasonable time frame”, parents of students left in the lurch were sceptical.
“I have already paid coaching fee for my son at Sri Chaitanya’s Patna branch where former FIITJEE Patna faculties are running the classes. I cannot trust FIITJEE which has disrupted my son’s studies of Class 11 and harassed us mentally,” Shweta Kashyap, whose son was enrolled at FIITJEE Patna centre told HT.
“FIITJEE could not pay its teachers who left the institute. I have already enrolled my daughter at Aakash Institute’s Noida Sector 62 branch…. I cannot trust them again,” said Rakesh Kumar, whose daughter was enrolled at FIITJEE’s Noida centre.
Both Aakash Institute in Noida and Sri Chaitanya in Patna on Friday confirmed that former FIITJEE teachers joined them.
“…We are also going to taking strict legal action against the unfair trade practices adopted by our competitors before civil and criminal courts,” FIITJEE said.
The institute also urged the students not to fall for “misleading tactics” and offered an audit of its finances. “You may also depute a chartered accountant to look into the affairs of any centre and we are confident that we will not only emerge innocent, but you will also realise that we too are a victim along with students and parents,” FIITJEE added.