Education is often looked at from the prism of ‘public good’. It being a responsibility of the state, undertaken as part of the great contract between the people and its government. But, as the journey of a society evolves and transitions various political, social, demographic and economic landscapes, should the contours of this contract also evolve? This question is perhaps linked to a larger debate on the future role of the government in an individual’s life, but for the time being let us stick to education.

The context

Sates are born on promises of a better future to it’s would be citizens. A critical path to fulfil that promise is to create more opportunities for the future generations, which can be done by a robust education system. Thus, it is only natural for any conscientious new government to take charge of education with an immediate goal of providing strong foundations to what will, over time, become an age-old fruit bearing tree for many generations to come. While working towards such long-term goals are necessary, it is also critical that more immediate aspirations of the citizens are fulfilled too. To implement immediate priorities, governments often work on, what can be described as the ‘plucking the lowest fruit’ method. This essentially would mean that anything which can be immediately achieved, is within available budgets, and has broad based consensus among stakeholders-should be implemented first.

A quick look at conversations around education over the years, reveals the early focus on building infrastructure, developing the roots of primary education and simply making sure that we had enough schools which people could reach. Once there were enough schools, conversations turned towards infrastructure within the school: availability of teachers, blackboards, textbooks etc. This conversation probably continued for much longer than it should have and only recently have we collectively started worrying about the alarmingly low and stagnant levels of learning of our children. We are yet to address the issues of quality, inclusiveness and innovation etc. in our education system. Although, the recently released National Education Policy, 2020 does take certain definite steps in that direction. All along, the government has been almost solely responsible for providing education.

However, the last few decades have seen a mushrooming of private schools and the enrolment patterns have steadily shifted since then. The enrolment of students in private unaided schools was at 3.4% in 1978 and in 2017 it stands at 34.8%¹. As on 2017, the combined enrolment of students in private unaided and private aided (government aided) schools stand at around 46%². This means almost 1 in every 2 students in India are today enrolled in private schools.

The shift in growth of enrolment from government to private schools
The steady growth in enrolment in private schools can be observed since around 1993, when the enrolment was at 9.2% which rose by 25% by 2017 to be at 34.8%³. This shift has coincided with increase in GDP per capita which was at $301 in 1993 to $2,104 in 2019⁴. Probably as Indians grew relatively prosperous, they attempted to shift their children from government to private schools. One of the chief reasons for this shift could be the perceived better quality of education which the child is likely to receive in private schools. In the absence of any standardized mechanism, the decision making by parents while choosing schools is largely informed by proxies like the medium of instruction being English, availability of a ‘smart class’, availability of ‘computer classes’, effective advertising of previously achieved academic results of students etc. This in turn drives the private school owners to invest in such aspects without long term plan or willingness to improve the learning outcomes of students. However, it has been found that private school students perform better than students in government schools. ASER 2019 found that 44.2% of grade 5 students in government schools can read grade 2 level text, whereas this figure stands at 65.1% for private schools⁵.

 

It needs to be noted that in India, around 70% of private schools are charging less than Rs. 1,000 per month course fee⁶. A few regularly observed characteristics in low-income private schools:

• Schools are often registered but do not have an affiliation for all classes which may be currently operating within the school. In such cases, they collaborate with other schools in the area with permissions for getting their students to give exams as the students of the other school. Needless to mention, there are financial arrangements between such schools
• The whole school with 200-300 students may be operating within a few rooms. In many cases students of multiple classes may be seated in a single classroom. While one class is given tasks to complete as classwork, the teacher teaches the other class. Norms for adequate space in classroom, availability of playground etc. have always existed in all state rules and yet such schools, especially in urban areas have been operating for years
• Hiring teachers with no requisite degree to teach is rampant because there is hardly any check on teacher recruitment. No defined or common criteria is followed for hiring of teachers
• There is no consistency is payment to teachers. Teachers are paid as low as Rs. 2,000 a month and an experienced teacher in a low income school may earn around Rs. 8,000-9,000 a month
• The idea of developing capacity of the teacher is virtually non-existent in such schools
• Math and Science teachers are in higher demand and sometimes they are visiting faculties to the school since they are teaching these subjects in more than one school in a day

While the national conversations around education have shifted from infrastructure to its quality, the processes have not. Government processes even today focus a lot on availability of infrastructure: classroom size, playground, number of rooms etc., without much success in implementing these norms, while there is little or no focus on the quality of education in these schools.

In many sectors which impact a citizen’s life, like: healthcare, travel, telecom, insurance, automobile etc., over the years, the government has allowed the market forces to operate within a broad framework regulated by the government. This model can be emulated for the education sector as well-although the operations of it may be much more intensive. A few ideas!

 

Currently the government is both the provider and regulator of education. This brings inherent conflict in effective implementation of both these roles. It is essential that both these roles are segregated. A constitutionally empowered autonomous body should be responsible for overall policy making in education with requisite state bodies while the government can continue operating schools. The New Education Policy, 2020 has taken steps in this direction

 

There needs to be a single window system for clearances, registration and affiliation processes for schools. The parameters for space, and other infrastructural requirements need to be revisited and created separately for rural and urban areas. Regulation for private schools need to be simplified with the goal of incentivizing those opening the schools

 

The school performance monitoring system needs a hard-refresh. The focus currently is on infrastructure, fee management, admissions, and following of other such regulations. While the monitoring of these parameters can be rationalized, there have to be concrete monitoring frameworks on aspects like learning levels, classroom engagements, skill building in schools, teacher capacity development etc. for both government and private schools. Currently, some of these systems are being implemented, but mainly for government schools. Private schools have no obligation to implement most of these expectations

 

 

Universities in India are accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) which has developed a standard mechanism to review, assess and accredit universities across the country and provide them a rating. This provides a clear understanding on the achievements of the university through a standardized and credible mechanism. Such a system should be introduced for all schools as this will enable parents to take informed decisions and drive the school management to plan develop the school on the basis of a uniform guideline

 

Though it may sound radical and may not be implementable in the short term, however, sometime in the next two decades, teaching can be made a licenced profession in phases after the system has been adequately prepared. A phased implementation coupled with effective recognition of licenced teachers will ensure systematic long-term improvement in quality of teachers. Acquiring a license, instead of being a one-time process of passing an examination should be like joining a community for long term learning, exchange and participation. This will bind the teachers of India into a community and develop a learning ecosystem. There can be multiple levels within the licencing framework enabling teachers to progress from one level of expertise to the other through their career. Teaching has for long been seen as an ‘easy profession’, especially for an individual who has multiple responsibilities. While this characterization of the profession is fast changing, the outlook of the society has not changed much. Licencing the teaching profession will bring more social recognition to the profession, especially if it is connected not only to the aspects of teaching and learning but the overall development of the students in the community

The intelligentsia: inventors, scientists: social, political or technological, philosophers, writers etc. of any society make a key contribution to the overall development of a nation. Thus, one of the key objectives of any education system is to develop a research-oriented temperament towards the sciences among the next generation. A school version of the Inter-University Accelerator Centre (IUAC) can be formed with the mandate of enhancing the research and scientific aptitude among students and forging collaborations: among schools, between schools and universities etc. to achieve this objective at a scale

 

Low income private schools face a dichotomy between being an un-aided institution having stakeholders with expectations of a private institution and a key institution of the society meant for public good. This sometimes leads to lopsided financial priorities and to an extent hinders innovation and excellence. Schools should be allowed to seek investment and financing and pay returns accordingly. This will help develop a long term robust financial model for schools

 

 

Any credible change in the learning level can only be brought about, if adequate focus is given to the teaching-learning and other academic practices of the private schools as well. Otherwise, the parents enrolling their children to these schools with high expectations and aspirations will stand disappointed a few years later and the demographic dividend we hope to reap, will remain elusive.

1,2,3,6: Central Square Foundation. 2020. State of the Sector Report on Private Schools in India

4: World Bank National Accounts Data, and OECD National Accounts Data Files

5: ASER 2019