Page 46 - EducationWorld September 2020

Cover Story

of the educracy at the Centre and in across the class spectrum, and there’s
the states is expended on monitoring, been a nationwide flight of children of
supervising and regulating private ed- aspirational households into private
ucation. The extent to which private schools, and latterly private universi-
schools are over-regulated is detailed ties.
in PSIR 2020. “Private schooling is a Undoubtedly, the continuous exo-
highly regulated sector and processes dus from public into private schools
to open (sic) a school vary from state has deeply embarrassed government,
to state, city to city, urban to rural especially state and local governments
areas and between affiliating boards (the 1,235 Kendriya Vidyalayas and
— and can be extensive”, says PSIR 661 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas run
2020. by the Central government are better
Citing a 2019 study of the Centre managed and administered because
for Civil Society, the report states that they are well-funded). But instead of
to promote a private school in Delhi, hunkering down to the task of upgrad-
125 documents involving 155 “steps” ing and improving public schools, gov-
have to move through the state gov- ernment seems hell-bent on levelling
ernment’s Directorate of Education, Dr. Neeraj Kaushal: unwarranted scorn down private schools. For instance, as
pass through the hands of 40 officials stated earlier, s.12 (1) (c) of the land-
as they (documents) are scrutinised and elite classes have shunned gov- mark RTE Act, 2009 offloads part
against a check list of 136 points. If ernment schools like the plague for the of the universally accepted and con-
this is the situation in the national past half century and it’s not unusual stitutionally mandated obligation of
capital in which access to the courts for middle class parents to queue for the State to provide free and compul-
and media is relatively easy, one can long hours — and normatively move sory primary education, upon private
imagine how difficult it is to promote heaven and earth — to procure admis- schools. By a convoluted 2-1 majority
private schools in other parts of the sion forms of reputed private schools verdict in Society for naided Private
U
country. in urban India. And in recent years, Schools of Raj asthan vs. U nion of In -
M OREOVER EVEN after have also discovered that the country’s alisation” of private schools was sanc-
dia (2012), “partial backdoor nation-
the lower middle and working classes
1.2 million public/government schools
tified by the Supreme Court, although
determined edupre-
neurs surmount for-
midable entry barriers, are a sham, established for the greater boarding and minority-promoted
schools were exempted.
good of over-paid, unaccountable gov-
licenced private schools continue to be ernment school teachers, rather than Although it’s more than apparent
subject to strict supervision under the of students. that the neta-babu brotherhood, and
heavy hand of government. Accord- Since liberalisation and deregula- the establishment, has a deep animus
ing to another study conducted by the tion of the Indian economy in 1991 against all private initiatives in edu-
Centre for Civil Society — one of the — and particularly in the new mil- cation, they entertain a special hatred
country’s most respected think tanks lennium after EducationWorld was for budget private schools (BPS). For
— earlier this year, 450,000 private launched in 1999 with the mission to the obvious reason that BPS are the
schools countrywide are governed by “build the pressure of public opinion natural refuge of children quitting
a dismaying array of laws, rules and to make education the #1 item on the government schools across the coun-
regulations including the Societies national agenda” — awareness of the try. And the exodus is fast becoming
Registration Act, 1860; Indian Trusts transformative power of good educa- a flood.
Act, 1882; Companies Act, 2013; the tion has fired the public imagination D r. G e e ta K in g don , professor
Right of Children to Free & Compul- at the Institute of Education, Uni-
n
sory Education (RTE) Act, 2009; State Promotion of a private versity College, London and A rv i d
Education Acts/Rules; Fee Regulation school in Delhi mandates P a n a g a riy a , professor of econom-
Acts enacted in 13 states; multiple ics at Columbia University, USA (and
court judgements and rules and regu- submission of 125 founding chairman of NITI Aayog,
lations prescribed by CBSE, CISCE, documents involving Delhi), confirm this phenomenon. “In-
NIOS and 29 state exam boards. dia’s public (i.e, government) elemen-
However it’s pertinent to note that 155 ‘steps’ in the state tary schools are in deep crisis. Nation-
government suspicion and prejudice government’s Directorate ally, the number of these schools has
against private schools is not shared of Education remained almost unchanged between
by the public. The country’s middle 2010-11 and 2017-18. But the number

46 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2020