Page 43 - EducationWorld September 2020

ing this infirmity of private schools is
a call for official and public attention
to also improve learning outcomes in
this important sector which schools
half the country’s children.
With a continuously rising num-
ber of lower middle and working
class households pulling children
out of government schools because
they believe teaching-learning stan-
dards and English language, even if
not English medium, education pro-
vided by affordable private schools is
considerably superior, it is important
these great expectations are not be-
lied. According to the authors of PSIR
2020, the quality of education in the
majority of private schools — espe-
cially budget private schools — tends
to be below par because the “learning EW India Budget Private School Rankings Awards nite: curious omission
outcomes are under-regulated in this
sector, whereas entry and operations whose children don’t write common is practised more in the breach than
are heavily regulated”. board or public exams. Therefore, par- observance. Perhaps the sole initiative
L EARNING OUTCOMES IN ter than government school education, holistic education in affordable BPS is
ents anxious to give their children bet-
to assess the quality of academic and
tend to judge their quality according
the EducationWorld India Budget Pri-
affordable budget private
schools tend to be unmea-
troduced in February this year which
sured because 60 percent to infrastructure and externalities vate Schools Rankings (EWIBPSR) in-
such as smart uniforms and claim of
of them are primaries-upper primaries English-medium instruction, which rated and ranked BPS in 143 cities
countrywide on 11 parameters of edu-
PSIR 2020 prescription for private schools growth cation excellence.
The subsequent EWIBPSR Awards
Comment Nite, at which the country’s best BPS
• Switch focus from assessing Repeal s.19 of RTE Act, 2009 were felicitated and celebrated in
inputs to measuring Modify rules and regulations relating to Mumbai on February 26 for the first
learning outcomes infrastructure, teacher salaries & time in the history of Indian educa-
fee increases tion, attracted over 400 BPS promot-
ers and principals, and has somewhat
• Ease entry & operations Establishing a greenfield school in impacted the contribution of afford-
Delhi requires 125 documents. Schools
obliged to register as non-profit able private schools on the public
consciousness. Curiously but not sur-
• Allow registration of This will enable high-quality providers prisingly, the EducationWorld India
for-profit schools to enter & scale Budget Private Schools Rankings ini-
tiative is totally ignored by PSIR 2020.
• Government should facilitate Facilitate comprehensive The logical, common-sense re-
regular measurement of learning continuous evaluation to empower sponse to rock-bottom learning out-
outcomes schools and parents to cooperate for comes, chronic teacher truancy and
better learning outcomes
continuous flight of students from
• Appoint independent regulator Recommended by Kasturirangan government to private schools would
for private schools Committee, not included in NEP 2020 be for the Central and particularly
state governments, to focus their at-
• Standardise inputs and Will enable ease of entry, operations &
process norms for safety, governance. tention on raising teaching-learning
governance & infrastructure standards in public schools. But evi-
Source: PSIR 2020 dently common-sense is not so com-
mon, because disproportionate time

SEPTEMBER 2020 EDUCATIONWORLD 43