Page 31 - Education World July 2020

Private budget school children in Chennai: formidable competition

ic. On the contrary, parents are being advised by the state programmes for India and the world. Government should
government not to pay tuition fees despite private schools focus on seizing this opportunity rather than damaging
switching to providing online education. Thus far, this, the city’s private schools ecosystem which has a national
our member schools have continued to pay teachers and reputation,” adds Srinivasan. Currently, the low-profile but
staff salaries. But with only 50-60 percent of parents pay- highly respected GEAR Innovative has 1,400 students and
ing their children’s fees, we are struggling to stay afloat. If 180 teachers on its muster rolls.
schools are forced to remain shut for another three months, Although all private schools and education institutions
60-70 percent of our member institutions will have to fire have been damaged by the spate of confusing, contradic-
teachers and staff and close down permanently,” warns M . tory and often unconstitutional government notifications,
Srinivas an, president of the Management of Independent circulars and media releases — especially of state govern-
CBSE Schools Association (Karnataka) which has a mem- ments which have caused cash flow problems on a massive
bership of 130 schools with an aggregate enrolment of 2.5 scale — low-cost budget private schools have been hardest
lakh children. hit. For one, BPS students tend to be from lower middle
An alumnus of Mysore and Connecticut (USA) univer- and working class households which have suffered most
sities and founder-principal of the Gifted Education and in the national lockdown of industry and business follow-
Research (GEAR) Innovative International School, Banga- ing Central government acknowledgment of the Covid-19
lore (estb.1995), Srinivasan says that notifications and ad- pandemic on March 25.
visories issued by the Karnataka government to schools to The shutdown of industrial plants and commercial es-
defer fees even as they are arm-twisted to honour teachers’ tablishments has hurt this segment of the population most
employment contracts, are “proof of confusion and non-ap- in terms of lay-offs, wage cuts and limited work-from-home
plication of mind” within the state government. “The online opportunities. Therefore, low-income households have been
learning revolution which has been forced upon the educa- susceptible to messages to suspend payment of children’s
tion system by the Covid crisis offers a great opportunity to school fees. With risk-averse banks reluctant to extend
India and particularly to Bangalore, which is brimming with emergency credit even to well-established private schools,
software engineers, to develop excellent online learning and the Central government resisting all exhortations to

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