Srinagar, Aug. 8 -- Once intended to support weak students, private tuition has evolved into a parallel education system-one that exposes the failures of formal schooling while deepening inequality, stress and financial insecurity.

Every afternoon, a familiar scene unfolds across India. A child returns from school, hurriedly eats a meal, changes clothes and leaves again-this time for tuition. The school bag may remain the same, but the classroom changes. For the next two or three hours, the student sits in another crowded room, studies many of the same subjects and prepares for many of the same examinations.

This second journey has become so normal that few people pause to ask an uncomfortable question: If children must attend another c...