Privatization of all the sectors is increasing rapidly. More and more sectors are being privatized as days pass. To the horror of students and parents, the education sector is not being spared from this rising tide of privatization.
It is seen today that often kids going to municipal schools are looked down upon. That is why parents do all in their power to send their kids to private schools. Our country with a large population of youngsters has far too few government institutions that provide good quality education.
The number of private educational institutes is sky rocketing. Private schooling has mushroomed in India. The rise of private schools is growing and the quality of municipal schools is deteriorating. The educational sector has become a business market. It’s not surprising that we come across terms like Education Business, Education Marketing and even षिक्षण सम्राट in India!
In many private schools that provide better facilities, the staff is under tremendous pressure. In most private schools, a teacher’s salary is drastically lower than in government schools. Staff members are made to work for longer hours. This creates a huge pressure on them and it invariably affects the students.
Staff working on contract is a trend in the entire country including the educational sector. This means that their salaries are exceedingly low and they get no employment benefits. Further, they are totally under the management’s thumb. Teachers, who are meant to mould the future generation of our country, are themselves unsure about their future! It is common to see the teachers taking their frustrations out by shouting at students or at times even beating them up.
Fees in private institutes are much higher than those in government institutes. The fees in private schools in cities like Mumbai often cross Rs. 1 lakh a year and can even go many times higher. Though constitutionally primary education is free and compulsory, it varies as between the rich and the poor. The rich get a better and superior system of education.
{Art. 26 of the Indian Constitution: “Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and Professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.”}
In the case of professional education, private institutes charge outrageously and provide terrible facilities compared to government institutes.
All this when the government institutes are being reduced to a fraction of private institutes and everyone talks boldly of the RTE (Right To Education) and free education to all up to 8th standard.
This is not where it all stops. Rather this is the point where things are beginning to get worse! The trends of the private education sector are seeping into the government sector as well. The concept of contract staff has already penetrated into the government institutes. The University of Mumbai has started hiring a lot of staff on contract basis. This staff not only includes non-academic staff but also the teaching faculty. For example, if 3 permanent teachers retire, even if 3 are recruited in their place, only one of them is recruited on permanent basis while the other two are recruited on contract! However most of the vacancies for teaching posts are not filled even though there is a requirement, thus overloading the existing staff.
People recruited on contract basis are asked to correct students’ papers! Many of them do not have the required experience or expertise to check papers. This results in many sincere students failing despite having done well in exams. How do we, under all these circumstances, expect the students to have good education and come out as capable citizens of the country? All these conditions often disturb the students mentally and cause depression. The number of students committing suicide is sky rocketing. Under these circumstances how can we expect the society to develop and progress?
Privatization in the education sector is unjust. It creates a divide in the society. To our horror, the government seems to be ignoring all this. The amount of budget allocated by the government for education is less than 4% of our GDP, which is far below what is required. Added to this is the pilferage, misuse and corruption rampant in public expenditure, with the result that only a fraction of the money actually reaches those who need it.
The government is encouraging the growth of privatization in the education sector. On the contrary, privatization in education must be stopped immediately. Otherwise the gap in the society will keep on widening!
Some Bitter Facts about Education in Rural India
(From the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) – 2014)
- Only 44.1% of Class 8 students and 26.1 % of Class 5 students managed to do a division
- Only 25.3% of Class 3 children could do a two digit subtraction
- Only 25.8% of Class 6 children and 23.2% of Class 8 children could subtract
- Only 58.8% of Class 6 students and 74.6% of Class 8 students can read Class 2 level text
Note: Finding facts about the Education sector in the country is difficult because of the inadequacy of government data. It is insufficient for making any definite conclusions and hence it becomes necessary to collect data from various other sources. There is a lot of mismatch in statistical data given by government and other organizations. At times these data are also contradictory. It seems that the governed is least bothered about education or does not want to let out the true facts about it. Even though the government claims that the literacy rates have increased, the literacy rates in India still fall below those of many underdeveloped countries.
– Hrishikeh
