Page 16 - EW August 2021

Education News

harashtra English Schools Trustees to pay teachers and staff
Association (MESTA) which claims to salaries.
have a membership of 18,000 institu- The KAMS survey
tions statewide. highlighting “missing stu-
Moreover, Patil stresses that in its dents” is backed by interim
anxiety to follow the directive of the student enrolment data
Supreme Court in the Indian School, for the new academic year
Jodhpur case — which Justices A.H. 2021-22 — the last date for
Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari admissions is August 31,
emphasised, was applicable only to 2021 — compiled under
Rajasthan during the pandemic — the the government’s Student
Maharashtra state government seems Achievement Tracking
to have overlooked the “heart of the System (SATS). Data
judgement”, i.e, that private indepen- released by the Karnataka
dent schools have a fundamental right Suresh Kumar: convenient interpretation department of primary
to determine fees payable by parents. and secondary education
Unfortunately all too often parents’ (BPS), this decline in enrolment on July 7, reveals that student enrol-
communities — and learned judges resulted in revenue loss of Rs.41.34 ment in schools (government, private
— seem to overlook the reality that crore to the 250 schools surveyed aided and unaided) statewide dipped
unlike government, private school which levy average annual fees of to around 62 percent in 2021-22 (cf.
managements don’t have the deficit Rs.20,000-40,000 per year. More- 70 percent in 2019-20) with gov-
financing option. over, of the 125,839 students who ernment schools recording highest
Dipta Joshi (Mumbai) were admitted in 2020-21, only 45 enrolment (76.86 percent) followed
percent paid the full annual fee, 17 by private schools (43.77 percent).
KARNATAKA percent paid 70 percent, 9 percent ven though it’s common knowl-
Urgency deficit less than 25 percent, with the re- Eedge that budget private schools
mainder 29 percent defaulting.
have mushroomed countrywide
Meanwhile, the state’s 21,000 as affordable refuges for children
lmost 15 months after the private unaided (financially indepen- fleeing dysfunctional government
country’s 1.5 million schools dent) schools and the BJP state gov- schools, hitherto primary educa-
Aincluding 450,000 private ernment are at loggerheads over the tion minister, S. Suresh Kumar
schools were ordered to shut down quantum of fees payable by parents interpreted this data as evidence that
by the Central government on March for the recently concluded academic government schools are becom-
25, 2020 to check the spread of the year. In February, several private ing popular again. “Admissions
Covid-19 pandemic, several surveys schools associations filed petitions in in government schools have seen
and reports are highlighting the the Karnataka high court contesting their biggest increase in the last 14
extensive damage done to children’s the constitutional validity of a Janu- years. During the Covid-19 pan-
education in terms of learning loss ary 29 state government directive demic, families from economically
and children dropping out of the to all private schools — including weaker sections have turned towards
school system. A survey report sub- schools affiliated with pan-India government schools. This is a silver
mitted to the Karnataka high court CBSE and CISCE exam boards — lining,” he crowed, addressing the
on July 16 by the Associated Man- statewide to collect only 70 percent media on July 8.
agements of Primary and Secondary of the tuition (and no other) fee for Yet, the truth is that government
Schools, Karnataka (KAMS) has re- the academic year 2020-21. school enrolments are rising because
vealed that 60,094 students dropped Spokespersons of the state’s a large number of lower middle
out of 250 private schools surveyed private unaided schools say that and working class households have
statewide in the academic year ended 30-40 percent of parents haven’t suffered severe income and employ-
April 30, 2021. The survey found paid full contracted fees for the past ment loss and cannot afford even
that the aggregate enrolment of year (2020-21). As a result, fees the modest tuition and other fees
these schools plunged from 185,933 arrears owing to private schools — the lowest worldwide — that BPS
in 2019-20 to 125,839 in 2020-21, a have accumulated to a massive charge. And the major attraction for
drop of 32 percent. Rs.4,000-5,000 crore. They contend low-income households devastated
According to KAMS, which has a that private schools, especially an es- by mismanagement of the Covid-19
membership of over 3,000 mostly timated 16,000 BPS, are on the brink pandemic, is the free mid-day meal
low-priced budget private schools of financial bankruptcy, stretched provided to government school

16 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2021