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Cover Story

LICENCE-PERMIT-QUOTA RAJ

DESPAIR IN K-12 EDUCATION

Even as the government school system has proved a monumental
failure with a steady exodus of children into private schools, in all
28 states and eight Union territories rents-seeking bureaucrats are
tying up private school promoters and managements in red tape
and nit-picking minutiae

Abhishree Choudhary, Bhavna Mundhra & Prisha Saxena

A LTHOUGH POST-INDEPENDENCE private unaided schools for contravention of various provi-

sions of the Karnataka Education Act 1983.
India’s infamous licence-permit-
quota raj in industry substantially
Karnataka is not the only state in which private schools
— overwhelmingly preferred by the middle class and aspi-
ended in 1991 with the landmark
rational working class — are in the doghouse. Across the
liberalisation and deregulation of
the Indian economy, it is alive and
fined by a plethora of laws, rules, regulations and directives
kicking in Indian education, K-12
education in particular. Even as country private schools are being cabined, cribbed and con-
for minor transgressions. Instead of focusing their attention
the public (government) school system has proved a monu- on raising rock-bottom teaching-learning standards in the
mental failure with a steady exodus of children into private country’s crumbling, dysfunctional 1.20 million govern-
schools, in all 28 states and eight Union territories rents- ment primary-secondaries, education bureaucrats of the
seeking bureaucrats are tying up private school promoters Central and state governments are smothering the nation’s
and managements in red tape and nit-picking minutiae. 450,000 private schools and forcing their managements to
For instance in the southern state of Karnataka (pop.69 tread gingerly for fear of running afoul of multitude laws,
million), over 1,000 private schools are under the guillotine rules and regulations enacted to control private schools to
for sundry charges ranging from adding new classes with- prevent “commercialisation of education”.
out official permission, levying unreasonable fees, teaching The market share of private K-12 schools in India is
in the English medium and claiming to be CBSE/CISCE-af- not small as propagated by Left intellectuals. According to
filiated schools pending approval of affiliation applications. Unesco’s Global Education Monitoring Report 2022, seven
On February 15, the state’s education ministry said that of ten schools in India are privately promoted. An estimated
“criminal charges” will be filed against 1,316 ‘unauthorised’ 120 million children – almost half of India’s school-going

34 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2023