Government Schools verses Private English Medium Schools
It is true that there is tremendous improvement in technology which has facilitated in general to cope with the time and do more things in less time and in particular the students community to start learning the new techniques from beginning, may say from the age of even 2 years. New technology attracts one and all because of its advantage. It was not that there was no competitiveness earlier. I remember in 50s or 60s also children had to appear and clear the test for admission in any good government schools.
In those days very very few guardian or student were thinking about admission in private English medium schools because the discipline and the teaching standard in government schools were very high. English medium schools were very few. It was observed that the class teacher means the guardian of all students of his class. The teachers were highly competent in their respective subjects which deserved and command the respect. Teachers were knowing the details of students and their family. They were chiding, punishing at the same time protecting and caring them too. There were no craze for English medium study. Even the principals used to take selective classes, may be in higher classes. When Principal or Teacher is seen in veranda of the school, the noisy class used to become silent and students running around quickly go to their classes. This was due to fear and the respect for teachers. Students passing out from such schools have acquired very high ranks in their life like in Civil Services, Engineering, Medical, Chartered Accountancy etc. Teaching in schools were so methodical that some parents were even not knowing about their children in which class they study except when they had to sign in report card once in an year. I remember when I was a student of Patna High School (Bihar), a Chief Minister’s son, Sons of high officials of Income Tax department etc. were studying with me. Can any one realize today why such a nice atmosphere was there in those days and every one was satisfied and how it got destroyed slowly. Few pass out of Patna High School had gone to the level of Chief Secretaries of the state. This is just an example. At every place like Zila Schools discipline was of very high order. I am just thinking where have those days gone and can children of today see such environment. It requires introspection.
Gradually it is being observed that the condition/standard of government run schools started deteriorating. Teaching standard went down hence respect for teachers lost, cases of indiscipline among students started increasing. And then the Private schools especially English medium started mushrooming. Slowly over a period of time, all good qualities which were seen in normal government schools, were taken over by private English medium schools and the students started shifting to private schools. But shifting was at a cost. Since the parents found the quality of teaching and discipline are very high, they opted to put their wards in such schools by paying more. Many do this by cutting expenditure on other items of their house for the better future of their wards. Today we see that even some poor people may be Tempo/ auto driver, small shopkeeper, third and fourth grade employees etc. are trying to put their sons in private English medium schools with a hope to change the fate of their house/family.
If such a situation has arrived then we can’t ignore the facts. It calls for a comparison:
The demand for English speaking professionals has increased and to compete for a good college or good job, the candidate must be fluent in English too. Most of the Private English medium schools are unaided and the owner or the trust runs the show on the fees taken from students. From this money, schools employ teachers, staff, maintains building, build extra building and arranges various functions etc. It is needless to say here that they employ the competent teachers and payment given to them is definitely much less than what is paid to Government teachers. The increase of pay, which is necessary, necessitates increasing of tuition fee which in turn gives more burdens to parents. Also see the job of teachers. They make teaching plan(as taught in B.Ed.), throughout school time they are busy in taking classes, giving homework to each student and collecting the homework copies for correction, carrying them at home for correction, engaged in few extra curricular activities and also in arranging functions etc. When correction was found wrong by seniors on random checking, teachers are warned too. Here it is Important to know that the service of teachers, principal are not permanent or guaranteed but since they do their job so nicely that there is no question of removing them. Also there is no union for teachers. But the sense of fear is there! And hence the result.
Can’t these things be employed in government schools to retain their students? Now the truth of most of the government schools are heard like this:
Number of teachers is less and the posts sanctioned are not filled. Teachers are given other jobs like census survey, ration card making survey, election – voter list preparation survey and similar jobs in which case many have to go from door to door. The competence of teachers here are said to be a question mark compared to private English medium schools teachers. But at the same time their salary is very high and the job is permanent and guaranteed. They have unions. Pay revision is done as and when due or strike also takes place. There is no question of removal from service on inefficiency as they are government employees and have all rights. The standard of teaching has deteriorated and no one worries because it will not harm them. Even if the students goes to private schools and number of students left are very few, teachers, staff etc. will continue to get full pay, In such a situation how one can expect that the standard of government schools will improve and students will enroll with them? Surprisingly most of the government employees do enroll their wards in private English medium schools.
On the other hand it can also be said that the Private Schools have started good earning and some say that today it is one of the best business. So long government schools will fail, private schools will grow and they will take advantage of it. The helpless parents are forced to pay whatever is demanded as tuition fee, other charges etc. by private schools because they have to see the career of their wards. Never the less parents raise their voice at different forums to reduce and take reasonable fees and for this they approach DC, Education Dep’t Officials & other government authorities for intervention. Parents have formed Parents association.
Now the government education department officers have started monitoring the private schools and have made many stringent rules like fill 25% seats with below poverty level (BPL) children who live within 1 km of the school without taking any test (In Jamshedpur which is one of the best cosmopolitan cities in India). On this, management or unaided private school association said that very few children come from within 1km of the school and requested the government to pay the actual cost of teaching for these students as they manage the school from tuition fees only. The government after much deliberations agreed to pay Rs 425/- (in Jharkhand) per child but schools say that they have not got even a single penny so far. President of unaided private schools say that this amount is not adequate. This should be increased. They gave example of government schools where cost per child comes to Rs 1500/- and the quality is before every one. He said that the salary of government school teachers today is 50k to 60k appx and they get much leave per year. Private school teachers have to work more in less salary. They are willing to take BPL children and urge the government to pay the increased fee. So far they have enrolled 1342 BPL children. Education department has sought the money from their authorities to pay to private schools. RTE is also there for private schools. Government also directs the schools to search from door to door and find such children. During admission time there use to be heavy rush for admission in almost all English medium private schools. Schools used to take tests, interviews of students and parents and on this basis, merit list was displayed. Parents and parents association started saying that there is a falls play and schools take admissions by taking capitation money. Here government intervened. The government authorities have imposed their ruling that the admission should be done on lottery basis means no consideration of merit and admission is purely on luck. This is to avoid taking capitation money by schools. But it was found to be heart burning as many meritorious children do not find place in the list and many below average merit children get place. Lot of discussions took place on the software also which selects the child randomly. Parents and government complained that the software is under school hence they may manipulate and still take admission to their favorites. Testing and demonstrations were made several times before the complainants and ultimately the software has been adopted but still parents and government desire that manual lottery system should be followed.
Hence it is seen that a lot of effort and energy is deployed in controlling the private unaided schools. Can they not improve the government schools by spending same effort and energy? This is all because the government schools have failed. Create the same environment as it is in private schools and stop intervening and then see the result. Alternatively outsource all government run schools to private efficient organizations who have better experience of running the schools. They will deploy their own teachers based on merit. The schools in Jamshedpur run very efficiently by Tata Steel have been outsourced to such organizations and the schools are running efficiently.
It is seldom found that private schools go to rural areas and starts the schools for poor. They are mostly confined to big cities where paying capacity of parents are more. It can be said that they have not opened the school for charity.
