Page 37 - Education World July 2020

Online schooling: not a cost-less exercise
ontrary to popular belief, for private schools switching to digitised online learning and introducing student-friendly
Chealth protocols is not a cost-less exercise. For a day school with an aggregate enrolment of 2,000 students mentored
by 185 teachers and a fleet of 40 school buses maintained by 120 drivers/conductors/cleaners, the average expense of
introducing online education is as under.
CURRENT EXPENDITURE
Capital Number Price Expense Revenue (Rs. lakh)
(Rs. lakh)
Laptop, notebook devices 100 30,000 30.00 Teacher training 18.00
for teachers & IT staff (Rs.1.5 lakh x 12 months
for 100 teachers)
Digital platform (online classes) 5.00
Digital platform (testing/exams) 5.00
IT operations manager 12.00
(Rs.100,000x12)
Total 30,000 30.00 40.00

POST COVID REOPENING EXPENDITURE
Capital Revenue
Sanitiser tunnel 1 1,50,000 1.50 Infra thermometers (300 x Rs.2,100) 3.90
Sanitising machines 12 3,000 3.60 PPE kits (23,400 x Rs.100) 23.40
Hand sanitisers 100 3,250 3.25 Face masks (36,000 x Rs.10) 3.60
Soap dispensers 60 3,250 3.25 Gloves (23,400 x Rs.10) 2.34
Disinfectants (15,300 x Rs.50) 7.65
Tunnel disinfectant 2.50
Miscellaneous (paint marking, extra
electricity & manpower etc 8.50
Total 11.60 51.89
Grand Total 41.60 91.89

tion from s.12 (1) (c). According tary schools are in deep crisis.
to A mb aris h R ai, convenor Begin with enrolments. Na-
of the Delhi-based RTE Forum, tionally, the number of these
only 12 percent of the country’s schools has remained almost
375,000 recognised private unchanged between 2010-11
schools are compliant with this and 2017-18. But the number
provision of the RTE Act. of students has declined from
Yet hostile as is the animus 126.2 million to 102.3 million
of the neta-babu brotherhood — a reduction of 23.9 million
towards recognised (licenced) students. The result: the aver-
private schools, it’s more an- Kingdon (left) & Panagariya: deep crisis age enrolment has fallen from
tagonistic towards the country’s 122 to just 99 pupils per school
private budget schools (BPS), which ondary education at the equivalent of over the seven-year period,” write
are steadily attracting a rising flood $5-15 (Rs.350-1,000) per month, are Kingdon and Panagariya.
of children from indifferently admin- emptying out government schools. Clearly, the neta-babu brotherhood
istered government schools defined by In an op-ed essay published by had read this writing on the wall over a
crumbling buildings, awful sanitation, the E c onom i c Ti m es (June 7), Geeta decade ago when it legislated the RTE
chronic teacher absenteeism, aversion King do n, professor at the Institute Act, 2009. But instead of upgrading
to teaching English and rock-bottom of Education, University College, Lon- and reforming the country’s 1.20 mil-
learning outcomes. Usually promoted don and A rvind Panag ariy a, pro- lion government schools by increas-
by entrepreneurs with love of children fessor of economics at Columbia Uni- ing their pathetically meagre alloca-
and a philanthropic bent, BPS — many versity, USA (and founding chairman tion for education in the budgets of
of them ‘unrecognised’ — claiming to of NITI Aayog, Delhi), confirm this the Central and state governments (of
offer English-medium primary-sec- phenomenon. “India’s public elemen- which a huge 20 percent is absorbed

JULY 2020 EDUCATIONWORLD 37