Off lately I have been wondering why shouldn't I open a school? For, it provides with all the money one needs, one gets to be God in their school, and no body bothers to spend on their child's education. I hear my friends, saying they paid 50,000 and some say they paid even 1 lakh to get their child admitted to the school of their choice. And they have paid the amount only as "donation" so as to secure a seat for PRE K.G. When I asked one of my friend where was the need to spend that kind of money, she said "Obviously any parent would want the best school for the child". Hmm... can't argue with that I guess!
Really, schooling has become a big looting business these days (or I'm noticing it probably now, as my daughter has started going to school) as there is, no body stopping them from demanding what they want. I got my daughter admitted to a school without paying a single rupee as donation, and I thought, oh here is a real school, which takes education seriously, and not as a means to make money. Oh how wishful thinking it was. As it turned out, that was the first year of the school, so they wanted students hence no donation. Now 2 years down the line, they are demanding 40,000/- Rupees for a seat in PRE K.G. And as I said, people don't care(or do they have a choice?) This is one form of looting in the name of donation. Schools don't want to loose any opportunity in making money. One needs to buy the books, uniform, school bag, lunch bag, shoes, socks and what not.
Yes it's compulsory that one needs to buy all these things from the school itself. And on top of that, they charge you exorbitantly for the inferior, cheap products they sell. And believe me, no body really bothers to ask why this is being done. Every body is happy, just to cough up what ever is being asked. The other day, I went to pay for transportation fees for my daughter, and it was two days past the last date, so I had to cough up 200 Rs. as fine. No request, no argument nothing works but money. More over, one needs to pay the transportation fees even for the months when the school is closed. When I asked the school about this, they say, oh, we have to pay for the insurance and other things for the whole year.
The list just goes on and on, I'm sure every parent know about this and we all say, ya what can we do, "system is like that only" no body wants to confront the problem for the fear of being victimized, I have tried, asking many people to support me to form a group so that, we could fight, but to no avail. Most parents feel their child might become the target of the school administrators and gets harassed, which I feel is a reasonable reason. The reason I wanted to write this is to get ideas from all you Prajegalu, to bring about a change in this system. If we can break this, it'll benefit so many other people like, shoe sellers, tailors, cloth merchants, bag sellers, book shops etc. who are all being denied the business by these schools. Also is there any law/regulation which prohibits these schools from collecting so called donations? Lets see what our maha janathe have to say about this...
Peace Guru
PS:Just received a note from my daughter's school, they want this year's fee to be paid only in cash!
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That is very interesting
Welcome.
I can understand your feelings, being in the thick of life, with school going children. Schooling is the very important aspect in a Childs life. No doubt about it. However beating the competition is not a simple matter.
I am tempted to give an analogy. To win aGrand Pre race you have to invest a lot in a Ferrari or any other brand of a racing car. Why do you think a Ferrari should cost what it costs? The driver to race in the Ferrari also I am sure will not come cheaply. Don’t you agree?
Now coming to a school, yes it is a challenging profession and or business. Just like I am happy to buy a Maruti 800 there are choice of schools available. Apart from that there is no need to get disheartened. Your ward can prove his or her mettle even going to a reasonably good school. No need to get disheartened, at all.
In my opinion a good school should demand and get its true value. Fake schools do get exposed in no time.
PSA
I agree
PRAJA rating for schools
In a market economy that we have moved towards, these kinds of misuses are inevitable. This is where the government has a role - as the facilitator, and more importantly, as the regulator. But, instead, it joins in the racketeering.
The ESI, which, none other than the leftist parliamentarian, Gurudas Dasgupta, termed as "the prasite that feeds off the sweat of the labour class" is out to set up a medical college, if you please!
One thing an organisation like PRAJA could perhaps do is to set up a rating system, based on various parameters, based on which the parents can make informed choices. May be it's time we gave a serious thought to this.
Muralidhar Rao
The Holi child school
Exploiting the teachers by these schools too is a matter of concern. The rating system is perhaps superfluous as the parents know which the good schools are.
The Kendriya Schools are a good example where the government has put its mind to the important issue of school education.But unfortunately it has stopped there.
The ESICcollege of Medicine
PSA
Public schooling as an equalizer
This is another area (health care is one) where the State has failed in providing quality. Those who can afford to opt out of public schooling. Those that cannot make do with what they get. The net result is that we perpetuate the class system even among children.
One of the aims of schooling should be to expose children to society - children from different strata of society should mingle together. That might bring down the social tensions inherent in such an inegalatarian society as ours sometime in future. It will teach children that it takes all sorts to make up the world - that there are rich, there are poor, there are intelligent and the not-so intelligent.
Private schooling is the exception in most developed countries. In the US you can attend only schools that fall within a certain distance of your home. Of course that leads to its own set of problems (people try and stay in districts which have better schools, etc). And of course the US schooling system is no paragon of virtue in terms of learning outcomes.
I always think of education and schooling as the greatest missed opportunity of the 50s.
Srivathsa
Drive safe. It is not just the car maker which can recall its product.
Subsidise via commertialisation
I do understand the concerns of parents who have pay up exorbirant donations for schools. I see points being made about the low quality of education despite high donations, low wages for teachers etc.
But, IMO, the factor that has been driving the costs of education up is not the greed of the schools, but the cost of real estate. With todays land prices (despite the fall due to reccession), schools cannot run effectively without such high donations. Imagine if a school has to provide a 40ft X 40ft playground, the school has to invest a lot in real estate.
Can you really imagine if one can build a school like national high school (just as an example) and still run the show at fees of 2k-3K per annum? Absolutely not. Such old schools, which were built very long ago, do not have to include real estate costs into their expenditure and hence are a lot cheaper. Considering this problem, I would opine that it is better if the civic agencies are able to provide the land to schools at subsidised rates. For example, the BDA, which forms so many layouts can also reserve some land to be sold at subsidised rates, only for specific amenities like schools, colleges, hospitals etc. Instead of the govt establishing and running schools (which have been the most ineffective), they can just help private parties build schools.
Without government help, the schools can themselves build commercial establishments on their premises. The schools can benefit partly from the rent paid by the shops/offices and this can subsidise the costs of running the school. Infact, based on this financial model, I am planning to run an orphange cum old age home 7-10 years down the line, in which I will not 'spend/lose' a rupee.
-Srivatsava V
http://srivatsava-vajapeyam.blogspot.com
-Srivatsava V
Agree with Srivatsava
Scarcity and a non-free market are the root cause
The education sector in India is a classic example of scracity created in a tightly regulated market by vested interests. These vested interests can charge high for education because of the high supply demand gap. Costs for education increase also because the "cut" that various people get in the supply chain of education is ultimately passed on to the consumer. Unfortunately people label this as 'commercialization' of education where the commericalization has a negative connotation. However, for India to prosper there needs to be more commercialization (with a +ve connotation) so that supply increases and prices reduce. A good example is our telecom sector where we have call rates among the lowest in the world. Of course some amount of regulation will be required. Depending on the government though to create and run schools is futile and will not yeild any results as has evidently been the case for all the years since independence. The government should provide good regulation of the sector and provide vouchers so that people can spend vouchers at a school of their choice. This concept has been discussed a lot by prominent bloggers and Indians. Nandan Nilekani's book Imagining India also has good discussion on this topic on these lines.
Neeraj Bhope