Introduction
Amidst a lot of excitement, our Education Minister released the New Education Policy 2020 on July 29th. This 66-page revolutionary document seeks to undo the damage caused to our education system over the years through disastrous policies. It looks at various ways to revive India’s ailing school system through concerted and targeted measures that improve both quality and growth. Most importantly, the document envisages a shift from an inputs-based approach to an outcomes-based approach, although the suggestions on this front are mainly directions, and a lot depends on how the government chooses to implement them. The document lives up to its name- NEP (coincidence?), with its commitment towards structural reforms.
While the document does a phenomenal job at targetting some glaring deficiencies in our schooling system, it misses the opportunity to address the issues of the private sector in India, which is a significant provider of quality education in rural areas at a meagre cost. It does talk about relaxing infrastructural norms for private schools under the RTE Act and treating them at par with government schools (except Central schools). But there is little conviction in these recommendations, which are still vague and uncertain. On the contrary, the policy maintains its ‘holy’ commitment to keeping the education sector strictly ‘non-profit’ and thus misses a historic opportunity to correct a ruinous economic decision. To put this in perspective, we are the only country in the world’s top ten economies to disallow profit-making in education. Because ‘profit’ is a bad word, and imparting education must be borne out of charity and goodness of our hearts. But what is the reality?
In this article, the author examines the role played by private players in India’s schooling system, factors stifling their growth, how the NEP addresses them, and finally, issues that remain unresolved.
Private School System in India
There are roughly three types of schools in India- Government-run (central, state or local), private aided and private unaided. Private aided schools are low in number. These aided schools have a private management board but are heavily controlled by the government. They are hardly representative of the common perception of ‘private schools.’ When there is a demand for enabling profit-making and easing the regulatory burden, it usually comes from the unaided private schools. These schools are genuinely privately owned, managed, and run. In this article, the author shall refer to these unaided private schools as just ‘private schools.’
The size of the private school sector in India cannot be calculated accurately since there are thousands of unrecognised private schools in India, which are usually not included in official surveys. The RTE Act mandates that schools that run without a certificate of government registration can be sent closure notices. Such notices are commonplace. Yet, many surveys, such as District Information System on Education (DISE) data, refuse to acknowledge the existence of unrecognised schools that continue to function in India. At the same time, surveys such as the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) data by NGO Pratham clubs unaided and aided private schools together, even though it includes unrecognised private schools. Finally, there is the National Sample Survey (NSS) data, which has collected data on education on certain occasions, such as in 2014-15.
Based on piecing together data from these sources, a paper on India’s ‘private schooling phenomenon’ was published by Geeta Gandhi Kingdon in March 2017. Consider these facts from a Mint report which uses the same paper-
First, a substantial number of students are already enrolled in private schools; 49% of urban and 21% of rural children attended private primary schools in 2014-15. Second, the increase in the number of private schools is four-five times the increase in the number of government schools for the period 2010-11 to 2014-15. Third, total enrolment in government schools decreased by 11.1 million in that period, while enrolment in private schools increased by 16 million. Finally, these private schools are not demonstrating the exit of rich children from the government system; the median private school fee in urban India was Rs500 per month and in rural India Rs275 per month.
The out-migration of students from government schools rendered many government schools unviable to run. In just three states, i.e., Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh, 24,000 government schools have been closed down. Yet, the RTE Act encourages the creation of more government schools under Section 6.
The most significant finding was that 80 percent of the private schools charged a fee lower than the per-pupil expenditure (PPE) of government schools. This, despite the schools being subjected to a license raj of the worst kind in a system that discourages and outlaws profit-making altogether. This will be discussed in the next section.
The paper also found that private schools were able to deliver similar learning outcomes, if not more, at a very low cost. The main reason behind this is that private schools do not have to pay teachers a government-mandated ‘minimum wage.’ Their salaries are decided by market forces, and the difference is stark. Consider this- In 2019, the starting salary of a government school teacher in UP was 48,918 per month, about 11 times UP’s per capita income. The salaries paid to government school teachers in India are 4 to 8 times higher than their counterparts in countries like China, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. Yet, China ranked second in the PISA test of reading, science, and arithmetic, while India ranked 73rd out of 74 countries. While political pressures and unionisation ensure a high salary for teachers, absenteeism is high, and learning outcomes are very poor.
These findings clearly and unequivocally show that the private sector has a huge role to play in India’s education sector. The schools have been growing at a rapid pace, but its supply has not been able to keep up with its demand. What are the reasons behind this?
Problems plaguing the Private Sector
References have been made to the RTE Act in the article earlier. The genesis of the problems faced by private schools is the RTE Act. The Act adds insult to injury, in that, it increases the regulatory burden on private schools, which are already disallowed from making profits. It also co-opts the states, who have the authority to increase requirements for a school to obtain a certificate of registration under Section 18. Schools that are set up have to comply with some minimum infrastructural norms. These requirements are often stringent, and failure to comply leads to a closure or a threat of closure of the school, without any regard for whether the school is imparting quality education. The focus is wholly based on inputs, while outcomes have taken a backseat. The most surprising, or rather outrageous aspect of the Act is that these requirements do not apply to government schools. Naturally, only 6 % of government schools were found to be compliant with RTE requirements by 2016.
Not only is the government not doing its job of providing education properly, but it is also not allowing the private sector to flourish. It is both the player and the umpire, but it is difficult to ascertain which role is worse.
The RTE also requires private schools to provide 25 % reservations for the economically weaker and disadvantaged groups of the society. The government, in turn, reimburses the school based on its per-pupil fee or per-child expenditure in government schools, whichever is lower. However, the reimbursements are often not enough, payment is delayed, and re-estimation of the reimbursement amount happens after long periods. This requirement is specific to non-minority institutions only (mostly Hindu). This disproportionately affects only a few schools, robs them of their autonomy by mandating a lottery system for choosing candidates (as depicted in ‘Hindi Medium’), and hurts the disadvantaged sections by limiting their choices of availing the benefit to a defined area only.
So the net effect- private players overcome a lot of hurdles to open a school, fulfil stringent norms to prevent it from being closed, undertake a social responsibility for which they are not adequately and timely compensated, dissociate from the word ‘profit’ completely and yet deliver better or equal learning outcomes compared to its government counterparts. Why will entrepreneurs enter the sector then? How will they ensure a steady supply of schools if disincentivised to the maximum possible extent? Therein lies the problem.
Let’s see how the NEP 2020 addresses some of these issues.
NEP 2020 and the Private Sector
The policy does an excellent job of identifying some core issues. It separates the role of policy-making and service delivery of education by creating two government departments- Department of School Education (which has all the power at present) for the former and the Directorate of School Education for the latter. At least, the role of player and umpire has now been separated. The primary issue of conflict of interest is resolved through this separation of powers. The second positive change is that the NEP asks the states to set up an independent regulatory authority, the State School Standards Authority (SSSA). This body will treat both private and government schools equally (except central schools), and they ‘will be assessed and accredited on the same criteria, benchmarks, and processes.’
The policy also takes an outcomes-based approach by advocating for the loosening of certain infrastructural norms. It envisages “suitable flexibility for each school to make its own decisions based on local needs and constraints, but without in any way compromising on the requirements of safety, security, and pleasant and productive learning space.”
The document does not, however, take a firm stance on these recommendations. It hardly addresses the RTE Act, although it is inevitable that a relaxation of norms and equitable treatment would require a thorough review of the Act. It extends the RTE to include children from the age group of 3-18. The document also ignores the other deficiencies under the Act as elucidated above. But the biggest disappointment is that the policy has still not allowed profit-making for private schools and tackled the 25% reservation rule.
Unresolved Issues
In an article written for Times of India, Gurcharan Das highlights that the NEP does not deal with certain uncomfortable truths. Despite a humongous demand for private schools, good private schools are few. It takes 35-125 permissions and five years on average to start a school. Hence, idealistic educators stay away, and private schools end up mediocre.
The only way to reduce this mediocrity is to enable competition in the market and allow education entrepreneurs to enter the game. At present, private schools are very often run by politicians. A small percentage of these schools bypass the laws by creating a twin structure model, wherein the same person owns the school as a trust and a for-profit company that owns all the assets of the school. The assets are leased to the school, and the school makes a payment for these services at a ‘mutually-agreed’ upon rate. Such practices then lead to protests, demand for fee control, and intervention by the government to correct a problem, which is their making in the first place. By being adamant in its resolve to disallow profit-making, the government is stifling small private schools (about 80 %) and unable to prevent the larger ones from making a profit anyway. One would have hoped that the NEP will correct for this.
The second major issue is the rule of 25% reservation under the RTE. Many experts have instead suggested an education voucher system or direct benefit transfers, where the parents can choose a school of their liking and redeem their voucher. The school can collect these vouchers and exchange it for compensation from the government. Under a voucher system, parents will have greater autonomy and agency in choosing a school. It will also increase accountability, as schools will have to strive for better learning outcomes. Otherwise, the parents will withdraw their wards and use their vouchers elsewhere. This pressure on schools will also compel teachers to become more efficient, which the current system discourages. Several experiments in India and abroad have proven that the voucher system or DBTs are highly successful in increasing quality.
Together, both these reforms will ensure a greater supply of good-quality private schools and a choice among the disadvantaged sections of the society to exercise their agency to choose a school without being reduced to a commodity in a state lottery.
The government has undertaken a massive gamble with the NEP, but a lot of it looks very promising. But it needs to clarify its position on private schools soon, as time is running out. At the current population trends, the present generation cannot afford to miss out on quality schooling. We have a huge decision to make, and let us hope it is the right one.
If you are interested in reading about this further, refer to this paper.
Other posts from Economyria that you may read-
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- Agricultural Reforms 2020- All you need to know
- Air India Privatisation : Why it should be done? – explained
- PM CARES vs PMNRF- All you need to know
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