The tussle between private and Government schools in the country’s education sector symbolises much that is both good and bad. The issue needs a resolution
A quiet unease has been brewing among parents sending their children to private unaided schools across the country, and most glaringly in the National Capital Region. For the past few weeks, parents have resorted to protests by lining up across schools in Noida and Gurgaon against what they claim arbitrary and unjustifiable fee hike by private schools. Frenetic appeals in form of tweets and social media feeds have gone out to all, including the Prime Ministers and Chief Ministers, urging them to intervene.
Thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's accessibility and constant dialogue with people, many parents have pinned their hope in him and rightly think that he might offer a solution. While the problem is disturbing and exhibits perils of an aspirational middle class, it may not be out of context to look at what may have contributed to the high-handedness of these schools, that are brazen in encashing on the anxieties of the new India's parents.
The rise of the private sector in education is a relatively new phenomenon — in just over two decades we have seen unprecedented boom here. From nursery to PhD, today students have innumerable choices. From Jammu to Jamnagar and Siliguri to Salem, parents have flocked to the private sector like moths to a flame. The Kotas and the Manipals have emerged as new India's Nalanda and Varanasi. Two factors which have triggered this mad rush have been the claim by private sector to impart ‘world-class’ education and craving among parents to spend more in order to get a prestigious degree — thereby implying a better future for their children.
The rise of the private sector has been synonymous with the decline of credibility of the Government sector. A perception deficit too has played a critical role in the dismissal of Government schools as credible centres of learning. The same middle class which demands and feels entitled to extract the best services from the Government, looks to its schools with utmost contempt. New India parents feel it derogatory to even consider Government schools for their children. It is another matter that some of the finest students are churned out from these schools. It also does not matter to many that a large number of children studying in these schools go on to clear the most difficult, and prestigious examinations, including the civil services and IITs.
Having said this, it is a fact that private schools have turned into commercial mercenaries and work in glaring opaqueness to hike fees in the name of superfluous grounds. little wonder, agencies including the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG), the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court have indicted the schools for such practice. The CAG had noted in a report in 2010 that “in many cases, schools charge fee they cannot justify”. A High Court-appointed three-member committee headed by Justice Anil Dev Singh had ordered the recovery of Rs 300 crore collected as excess fee from 535 private schools in Delhi ever since its formation in 2011. In January 2017, the Supreme Court had ordered private schools built on land allotted by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to seek the Government's permission before hiking fees.
Noted lawyer and activist Ashok Agarwal, in a petition to the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar, had raised some pertinent issues and asked for immediate redressal through, among others, enacting a law regulating the fees and other charges in unaided private schools. He also asked for the Union Government to enact a rule on the lines of the Allahabad High Court judgement mandating all public servants to send their children to public-aided schools. Parents in Noida have urged Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to create a State regulatory body to monitor charges by private schools.
The gripe of grievance is growing louder everyday, and it is only pertinent that the state intervenes to restore the sanctity of this critical institution of our society. It must take along the schools and parents to resolve the contentious issue. If it is left unattended, the chorus of discontent might turn into an avoidable chaos.
(The writer is a strategic communications professional)