Let's start with a number that might sting a little.
The average Indian family spends around ₹16,000 a year on after-school education — tutors, tuition, and coaching classes — according to a Schoolnet survey. In Tier-1 cities, total education spend climbs higher. And at the top end, a PNB MetLife and NielsenIQ survey found families spending up to ₹5.3 lakh a year on education and extracurriculars — many saying they'd sacrifice their own lifestyle to keep paying for it.
We are, as a country, deeply willing to invest in our children. That's not the problem. The problem is what comes before the investment — or rather, what usually doesn't.
The enrolment cycle most of us know too well
It tends to go like this. A friend's child started chess, so we try chess. The neighbour's daughter is doing Bharatanatyam, so maybe ours should too. There's a coding class everyone's talking about. We sign up, we pay the term fee, we buy the kit.
And then, a few weeks in, the enthusiasm fades. They drag their feet. We push. Eventually we quietly stop, write off the fee, and move to the next thing.
It's not that the child gives up easily. It's that we enrolled before we knew what they were actually drawn to. We chose the activity for them, based on what worked for someone else's child, and then hoped it would fit.
The scale of this is real. The government's Comprehensive Modular Survey on Education 2025 found that 27% of Indian students take coaching classes — rising to 30.7% in cities. A separate Cambridge International census found that around 74% of Indian students take extra classes in mathematics alone. A huge amount of money and a child's afternoons are going into classes — and very little of it starts with the question that should come first.
The question that should come first
Before the next term fee, before the next "let's just try it," ask: do I actually know what my child is wired for?
Not what they're decent at. Not what I wish they'd love. What genuinely pulls them.
Because here's what most of us miss. A class your child is naturally suited to and one they're not can cost exactly the same in rupees — but they're worlds apart in outcome. One builds confidence, momentum, and a skill that compounds for years. The other builds resistance, a sense of failure, and a drawer full of abandoned equipment.
The fee is identical. The return is not.
"Good at it" is not the same as "right for them"
There's a subtler trap inside all this. Sometimes a child is good at the class we picked — and we take that as proof we chose well. But being capable at something and being energised by it are two different things.
A child can perform perfectly well in an activity that quietly drains them. They'll do it to please you, score reasonably, and slowly lose their spark. That's not a win. That's competence masking a mismatch.
The signal that separates the two is energy. The right activity leaves a child more alive, not less. They lose track of time. They bring it up at dinner. They'd do it even if no one were watching. If a class consistently leaves your child flat — even one they're "good" at — that's worth listening to.
Discover first. Then invest.
This is the whole shift, and it's a simple one. Instead of enrol and hope, the order becomes understand, then choose.
When you actually know your child's natural strengths, the class decision almost makes itself. A child who notices everyone's moods and naturally mediates fights isn't a misfit — they may be wired for something deeply social, and a drama or debate space will light them up far more than another coding batch. A child who takes things apart and asks endless "why" questions might thrive in a robotics or science setting in a way they never would at the keyboard.
You stop paying to find out by trial and error. You start paying for the thing that fits.
A practical way to begin
You can start this week, for free:
- Pause the next enrolment by one month. Use that month to watch instead of sign up.
- Notice the three signals — what gives your child energy, what they choose on their own, what they pick up fast. Those three together point at genuine strength.
- Talk to them. Ask what part of their day they liked most. Children tell you more than we expect when we actually ask.
And if you want a clearer, structured read before committing real money to classes, that's exactly what a proper talent assessment is for. Our Talent Discovery assessment maps your child's strengths across five intelligence zones in about 30 minutes, for ₹99 — a fraction of a single term's class fee, designed to make sure the term fees you do pay go toward the right thing.
For parents who'd rather observe and decode their child's everyday behaviour themselves, My Child's Talent Finder takes the same idea offline — a deck that turns the things your child already does into clear talent signals.
Either way, the principle holds: the most expensive class isn't the priciest one. It's the wrong one. Discover first. Then invest.
Sources: Schoolnet education spending survey; PNB MetLife / NielsenIQ survey; Comprehensive Modular Survey on Education 2025, MOSPI.