By Nikita Sharma
India’s primary education sector has suffered negligence since independence. Now, after 70 years of independence, the funds have fallen short even though the government increased the budgetary allocation for education by 9.9% this year.
There has been a decrease in expenditure on education from 4.4% of GDP in 1999 to 3.71% this year. Consequently, the quality of education in government schools has been falling, with many children severely lacking in reading and mathematical abilities. The mid-day meal scheme, which was rolled out to incentivise enrollment in schools, offers nothing but a substandard quality of food.
Boosting the enrollment rates
In light of the poor quality of education being imparted in government schools, Budget Private Schools (BPS) started mushrooming in India in the mid-1990s, and especially after 2000. These schools are edupreneurial ventures that cater to the educational needs of those from the lower income strata. The tuition fees charged in these schools typically range from Rs 70-150 per month in rural areas and Rs 200-600 in urban India.
The government schools, on the other hand, charge no fee. In spite of this, as many as 51% of children in urban areas and 21% in rural areas were enrolled in private unaided schools, as per the Indian Human Development Survey carried out in 2005. BPS has had a massive role to play in raising the enrollment rates in schools.
Making quality education accessible
These affordable private schools are often established in small premises like rented family homes or even rooms above shops. Despite the lack of infrastructure and facilities, parents prefer to send their children to these schools as they are closer to home. Many studies have highlighted distance as being a major impediment to access to education for young children, especially girls. BPS overcome that hurdle.
Moreover, the private schools that offer English as a medium of instruction attract more aspirational parents than government schools which teach in the regional language. The behavioural tendencythat if one pays more, one is getting a better serviceis also at play here. All that aside, studies over the past decades have shown that the educational outcome in these schools is better, if not equal, to that of government schools and the parents believe the same.
Impediments imposed by the RTE
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 imposes unfair hurdles to the recognition of BPS. For recognition, private schools must fulfil certain norms and standards. These include a teacher-pupil ratio of 1:30, separate toilets for boys and girls, safe and adequate drinking water facility, a playground and a library. While these are valid requirements, they speak nothing of the quality of education being imparted.
Unsurprisingly, it exempts the grossly dysfunctional government schools from having to meet these criteria. This is discriminatory towards the private schools of limited means. It becomes even more enraging when one notes that 31% of government/aided primary schools still do not provide separate toilet facilities for female students. Moreover, only 63% of the countrys 1.2 million government schools meet the prescribed teacher-pupil ratio as per the Union HRD ministrys RTE: The 3rd Year Report, that was released in April.
Further, these BPS are still expected to fulfil such norms at their own expenses, failing which their recognition will be revoked. If they still continue to run a school after recognition is withdrawn [they] shall be liable to [pay] a fine which may extend to one lakh rupees and in case of continuing contraventions to a fine of ten thousand rupees for each day during which such contravention continues (s.19 (5)). Even if they were to attempt to fulfil the unrealistic criterion such as the provision of a playground, increasing teachers salaries and making education free for a quarter of the students from poor families, they would have to increase the fees significantly. This would defeat their very purpose of providing inexpensive education.
Withdrawing education rather than guaranteeing it
The requirements listed out in the RTE focus more on the inputs than the outputs of the education process. These have put an estimated 300,000 recognised/unrecognised private schools at the risk of closure. The RTE withdraws education from rather than guaranteeing it to the 60 million children enrolled in these schools.
Instead, the government should focus on providing soft loans to these cost-effective schools so that they may fulfil some of the requirements under section 19 of the Act. It should do away with the compulsory provision of a playground, as this requirement is hard to fulfil in urban spaces. On the whole, it should shift focus to the academic and co-scholastic aspects of education rather than mere infrastructural ones.
In the end, the government should introspect whether it is ready to effectively accommodate the students who will be displaced when it unfairly shuts these schools down.
Featured Image Source: VisualHunt