Mint Explainer: The price we pay for our love of private schools

It’s not just in India

In India, the share of private sector in primary, secondary and tertiary education is 45%, 51% and 57%. It’s in part a battle of perception. As the demand for English education has risen, so has the demand for private schooling. Also, private schools are perceived to ensure superior learning outcomes, to the extent that there is “the problem of stigmatization of public schooling”, according to the report.

There has been a surge in demand for private schooling in primary and secondary education across the world, finds the Unesco report. Private institutions have doubled their share in primary education in the last 20 years in South Asia – rising from 19% to 38%. And across the world, enrolment in primary private schools also doubled, rising by nine percentage points in the same period. There was also a jump in the share of private sector in secondary education as well.

How private education widens disparities

India has tried to make private education more egalitarian and diverse, points out the report. The Right to Education Act mandates that 25% enrolment in private unaided schools should be from children with a socio-economically disadvantaged background. India has also seen rapid growth of cheaper budget schools, taking private education to the masses, as the student enrolment numbers indicate. Still, private education may have only deepened socio-economic disparities in India. First, there are disparities between urban and rural areas. “Children in rural areas and from scheduled tribes were half as likely to use the private provision as those in urban areas and non-designated social groups,” the report says. In India, children from the richest quintile were seven times as likely (63%) as children from the poorest quintile (9%) to attend private institutions, points out the report. Remember, the privileged attend elite institutions. It explains why learning outcomes are better in urban settings. For instance, it has been found that Grade 5 private school students in metropolitan areas have higher scores than those in smaller towns and villages.

How can we make private schooling better?

India’s poor learning outcomes in primary education are triggered by inadequate regulation of schools – both private and public. The private sector needs more supervision of curriculum even as the basic infrastructure standards are set out. And in the public institutions, teacher absenteeism is a major problem. Per se, teachers at private institutions aren’t necessarily superior to those at public schools, finds the report.

So, here’s the problem for public institutions, according to the study. “In India, despite the presence of a dedicated Ministry of Women and Child Development, coordination with multiple education departments at the national and state levels is weak.” It also finds “vacant posts and lack of training for regulatory functions…” adding India can learn from the success of intermediaries like the National Skill Development Corp. (NSDC). NSDC, the report says, has balanced “scaling up private sector engagement in skills development with government accountability and oversight”.