Saturday, April 30, 2016

Why Private Schools Exploit Parents?


Private schools and colleges in India are looting parents in the name of quality education.

I would like to focus here primary and middle schools where every year syllabus in a school gets changed, books are changed, tuition fee structure is changed, prices of copies and books supplied by the school is increased, new charges are levied on students in the name of devlopment of building etc.

In the past a set of books purchased by a parent could be used for decades by coming generation boys and girls and by children of friends and relatives admitted in the same class. IN modern era it is not possible because school management changes syllabus and books every year and students are forced to buy these prescribed books either from school itself or by a prescribed book dealer. Teaching standard is good in some schools but not in all schools . But there is no doubt that standard of teaching in private schools is at least better than that in government run schools.

So far as colleges for higher education like engineering , MBA and medical is concerned , tuition fee in these colleges have been rising year after year whereas quality of teaching is deteriorating continuosly.A few decades ago there used to be rush in government colleges of higher education , engineering colleges and medial colleges . Now situation has changed completely.

 In few reputed private colleges, quality of teaching is undoubtedly good and students passing out of these colleges get immediate placement . But in majority of private colleges , quality of teaching is questionalbe and student passing out of these colleges hardly get a good job.

It is important to mention here that management of majority of these primary schools and colleges conduct their own examinations. They manage examinations in such a way that almost all students pass examinations and awarded a degree comfortably. Majority of students are given marks above 90%. Students securing more than 90% marks in each school examination are however rejected in most of All India based competitive examination held either for admission in quality schools or for appointment in a good company.

Now the question here is why and how quality of teaching in India has been deteriorating year after year in majority of schools and colleges . Only in few schools and colleges , teaching is of high quality and where there is a mad rush of parents for admission of their wards. And governmnt of India and state governments are in general silent spectator of what has been happening in India for last three decades and more. Actually deterioration started since 1991 when Government of India gave freedom to private sector enterpreneurs to open schools and colleges.

I say so because before even upto eighties , parent used to give preference to government run schools and colleges for admission of their wards. It is due to the fact that quality of teaching in government schools has faced continuous erosion after freedom . More than fifty percent of government schools run on registers only. In many schools , numner of teacher is too low to cope with demands of students. Quality of majority of teachers is bbwlow standards. Classes are not regularly conducted. School inspectors ceritfy good health and earn regular bribe in lieu of it. Similarly examination papers are leaked and sold to students at a price. And so on.

IN two to three decades after freedom , government schools started facing criticism due to relentless fall in standard of teaching as well as discipline. Further since State governments did not care neither for expansion of schools and colleges to cope with demands increasing year after year due to increase inpopulation and nor did it adequate take care about quality of teaching and quality of examination. People started searching better private schools to avoid govrnment schools .

Political parties in power in state goverment started using teaching staff for election and for making propaganda in favour of ruling party. Unemployed youth associated with ruling party were arbitrarily appointed as teachers in government run schools and colleges. The culture of political exploitation of teaching staff gradually damaged the quality of teaching and discipline in these place of education and these schools have lost their image and acceptability  in public life.

After 1991, private schools and colleges started spreading in each and everynook and corner of the country and they are totally unregulated and uncontolled in any matte. They enjoy full freedom . It is seen for last few years , that parents facing exploitation in private schools have formed association and they have started raising voice in protest against these private schools. And sometimes TV media also give coverage to grievances of these victimised parents of students admitted in private schools.


But here the question is why such situation has arisen and who are responsbile for such sorry affairs of private schools and also that of governmnt schools.

Government of India or State government or media cannot stop exploitation of parents by private schools until government run schools really become true place of quality education. Eduction is important and poorest among poor also realise the importance of education for their child .Every parent as per their capacity try their best to ensure that their children are admitted in best schools even if parent themselves are illiterate or poorly educated. They try to make future of their child by hook or by crook. Various banks also extend loan facility to parent for getting admission of their child in schools and colleges if they fulfill certain norms of banks. But these parent feel cheated and disappointed when their child do not get good job even though they are having big degrees and even after spending huge amount in educating a child.

Parent like their child to acquire best talent in least cost. Since Government schools have become almost useless and mostly a place where lessons of indicipline are injected into the bloood of children.This is why majority of parents opt for costly private schools to make career of their child bright and prosperous.

Private schools have also understood that parents are constrained to opt for private schools as because government run schools are no more good for future of children. And since there is no option now left for parents, private schools also leave no stone unturned to exploit parents in the name of tuition fee or costly books or development fund or something else. There appears to be none to help parent facing exploitation in the hands of management of these private schools.

In America , all schools are govt schools and there is same syllabus for all schools upto class 12 and same examiniation. Education upto 12th standard is reportedly completely free . Children are taught values, morals,legal position related to various aspects of life , importance of nationalism etc during entire school education. Students upto class 12 are to face uniform examination in entire USA. When they pass 12th class, they are to face test for admission in colleges of higher education and pay tuition fee as per structure of private colleges. There may be merits and demerits in their system, but we Indains have to assess and ascertain its utility for our country and make necessary modification to suit our country.

But I have no doubt to say that all Indians too should also be given uniform education and face same examination all over the country. And then based on merit and potential for a subject , a student may be asked for opting for higher education .As far as possible, country should frame a National policy on Education. It is important to mention here that as per Constitution , education lies in concurrent list and hence central government may suggest and advice state governments in national interest.

Students of all caste and community and of all regions and religion must undergo same books, same teaching and same examination . Only then students of entire country may justifiably be selected for various course in various colleges.

The practice of donation has to be dispensed with immediately. Government must ban and penalise  all colleges who on the basis of value of donation admit even weak students for higher level courses and then pass them also on the basis of illegal money they get in lieu of passing . Government must stop schools and colleges who have made mockery of education and who are selling degrees to earn money. Such greedy private schools are posing danger for the country.


In India each school has its own syllabus ,own tuition fee structure and own exam, they loot parents and give max marks all. Passing of students least depends on quality of his understanding a particular subject but on money he or she pay to teachers for passing and for getting higher marks. Government has to stop it anyhow and make necessary law to ensure it.


Here I would like to say that Government will have to first improve the image of government run schools and colleges. They have to ensure that quality of teaching in such schools become so much good and attractive that parent stop giving prefernce to private schools. Govrnment have to ponder over it , why children of teachers of government schools, children of of government employees and children of politicians and that of ministers are not admitted in government run schools and why government employees who manage goveernment schools do like that their children admittd in private schools.

I hate those politicians and ministers and mediamen who simply abuse management of private schools and try to put various restriction on them . In the state of Delhi , government is forcing private schools to cut fee structure , to impart free education to children of poor families and to stop management quota etc. These instructions may appears to be good to common men and to media men. Govrnment may earn some words of praise from Delhi public. But in the long run , the outcome of these forced steps may prove fatal and harmful.

WE know that government run schools are not good. And now due to dirty politics , if private schools too become bad , where parents wil go for better education for their children is a million dollar question which every goveernment shound ponder over it. Obviously such politics may give some advantage to political party heading Delhi government , but it will spoil future of Delhi families and future of Delhi children will be doomed.

I therefore request Delhi Government and all those politicians and media men , please do not add fuel to fire. Education is already in worst status. Private schools and collages are only small relief left helpless parents. Debate on TV may spoil private school teachings also whereas Govt schools are already a place for fools and poor parents.

Private schools are not for charity, but for profit, they cannot be controlled by any government until government take proper iitiative to make government schools a true place for quality education and a temple for learning values .Government has to run schools as welfare scheme and they have to improve it , reform it and transform them to become pioneer in education .

Then only govrnment will have moral right to teach lessons to management of private schools. And the bitter truth is that if government schools become the best in quality and become affordable for all common men, I do not think that a intelligent parent will ever like their child to be admitted in private schools and face exploitation in their hands.

Exorbitant charges are realised from patients by private nursing homes and patients agree to give because they want complete cure of their patients even if it needs payment of higher charges. Private nursing homes are looting and pathologist are looting patients. It is an open secret.

But  Why?

Because government hospital do not take proper care of patients admitted there and there is no hope that patients will be cured. Rather it is an impression in public mind that these hospitals are killers and patients admitted there seldom come back alive .

Similar is the fate of public sector undertakings, banks, airlines, telecom service providers like BSNL. People of India do not want to even lodge a FIR in police station when they are harassed by someone or exploited by some office. They do not want even to appraoch courts of India for justice because they know that even judiciary in India is in grip of powerful politicians associated with ruling party or powerful officials or wealthy and musclemen .All these government entities are victim of dirty politics of past govternments and consumers are sufferers and they are left with no  alternatives, other than opting for private services at whatsoever costs these services are available in private sector.


Every state Government as well as central government has to introspect and make necessary changes in laws, modify their way of thinking and change their attitude and mindset . It is easy to abuse private sector but it is very much difficult to make government sector acceptable to people of India.


National Education Policy In USA

Education in the United States is provided by public schools and private schools.

Public education is universally required at the K–12 level, and is available at state colleges and universities for all students. K–12 public school curricula, budgets, and policies are set through locally elected school boards, who have jurisdiction over individual school districts. State governments set overall educational standards, often mandate standardized tests for K–12 public school systems, and supervise, usually through a board of regents, state colleges and universities. Funding comes from the state, local, and federal government.

Private schools are generally free to determine their own curriculum and staffing policies, with voluntary accreditation available through independent regional accreditation authorities. About 87% of school-age children attend public schools, about 10% attend private schools and roughly 3% are home-schooled.

Education is compulsory over an age range starting between five and eight and ending somewhere between ages sixteen and eighteen, depending on the state. This requirement can be satisfied in public schools, state-certified private schools, or an approved home school program. In most schools, education is divided into three levels: elementary school, middle or junior high school, and high school. Children are usually divided by age groups into grades, ranging from kindergarten and first grade for the youngest children, up to twelfth grade as the final year of high school.

There are also a large number and wide variety of publicly and privately administered institutions of higher education throughout the country. Post-secondary education, divided into college, as the first tertiary degree, and graduate school, is described in a separate section below.

The United States spends more per student on education than any other country. In 2014, the Pearson/Economist Intelligence Unit rated US education as 14th best in the world, just behind Russia. According to a report published by the U.S. News & World Report, of the top ten colleges and universities in the world, eight are American. (The other two are Oxford and Cambridge, in the United Kingdom.)


Education Policy In USA

Education is an instrument of the broader social order. When society changes, education, sooner or later, also changes. Few activities or agencies, however, change as slowly, or in such small increments, as formal education–both schools and colleges as well as both public and private institutions. Education's roots are deep and wide, penetrating almost every facet of society. Hence, education is subject to virtually every political force, including those that want change and those that want to protect the status quo.

Public K–12 education–which operates across fifty states, 14,000 local school districts, and 100,000 schools; involves 5 million employees and more than 48 million students; and costs more than $2 billion each day–is too large, too costly, and too enmeshed in political dynamics to change quickly. Postsecondary institutions–colleges and universities–have become equally ponderous. With the advent of post– World War II enrollment increases; the significance of university-based research for preserving the nation's economic, medical, and military preeminence; and the substantial assumption of student financial aid by government, higher education also has become a major feature of the political landscape and become engulfed by much of the inertia that immobilizes lower schools.

For most of American history, the nation's most prestigious elementary and secondary schools and elite colleges have been few in number, and their private charters and religious affiliations have rendered them generally independent of government. But for colleges and universities, nearly all of which, in the early twenty-first century, are accepting student financial-aid subsidies from government and engaging in government-sponsored research, this situation has changed. Government now is a major constituent for higher education, both public and private.

Even for private preparatory and religious elementary and secondary schools, the condition of independence from government could change. If the U.S. Supreme Court approves allocation of public funds for private and religious institutions, private schools could come under the full umbrella of public policy in the same way as their public institutional counterparts.

Still, even as subjects of increasing politicization, and even if only at a glacial pace, schools and colleges do change. Formal education at the onset of the twenty-first century exhibited many differences from that of even thirty years previous, and it certainly was different from what children and parents experienced in the early part of the twentieth century.

The Basics of Educational Policy



Read more: United States Educational Policy - The Basics of Educational Policy, The Pressure for Reform in American Education, Defining Policy - StateUniversity.com http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1937/Educational-Policy-United-States.html#ixzz46lFInKyP


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