A recent survey by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) has indicated how the statistics are in favor of private schools over public ones. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent apprehensions in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ echo the very best of those voices who’ve always been plunging their confidence on education in government schools. Yet the survey by NSSO explains why our Hon’ble Prime Minister goes on to stress about how every government school should concentrate on quality learning and outcomes rather than school intake capacity.
This is what the survey reports –
1. Around 62% of children in India attended a government primary school in 2014 compared to the approx. 72% in 2007-2008.
2. The percentage of students at the upper primary level in government schools doesn’t guise bright either with a reduction from roundabout of 70% in 2007-2008 to 66% in 2014.
3. Attendance in government primary schools in rural areas is around 72% in 2014 while only 31% of that in urban areas. However this is certainly not to be deliberated as probability of improved learning outcomes.
This only mirrors how an investment of approx. $95 billion on primary education in India has botched in detaining the debility in education. In India, the thirst of education is not really an issue but its supply is.
Some of the most possible reasons lie in students’ preference of private institutions for primary studies on the justification for a better environment of learning along with English as the medium of education. This tendency for English medium schools remained unvarying as pupil from both rural and urban areas are now bare to developed career objectives and recognize how education is the license to walk out of poverty. But then for higher studies even if the demand rushed for government colleges, the enrollment deems low because of the students’ inability to get an admission into one. Anyone with a rudimentary sketch of the education system in India is well aware of how poor infrastructure along with other factors like lack of competent faculty and fiddling of resources has plagued our country.
But then the inclination towards private institutions is not merely results based on these observations but also on that of learning outcomes witnessed in government schools. Studies show private schools are not only better performers in terms of grade competency but also in terms of openness in course outline. The RTE demands some regulations like teachers must finish the syllabus in a given time frame, stick to a particular syllabus structure and also the students should be automatically promoted to class 8. All these slacken up the grip over quality of education as schools need more facilities, less protocols.
On one hand we have some capitalists who treat our education system as another business and then we have these philanthropists who leave no stone unturned to shape India bestowing their dreams. While the idea of ‘privatization’ throws a picture of exorbitance yet at the comfort of the young aspirants of India, there are few private schools which are approachable in every sense. It is actually the very same factor that actually evokes a sense of responsibility in every parent about sending their children to good schools. By good schools their visions are not bound to the thirst for a posh environment or exclusive infrastructure but feeding of quality knowledge and a disciplined dissemination of learning. And the realization of the same by the government will only boost up our nation’s ‘Make In India’ in present and in future.
