If there are a set of people willing to learn and a set willing to teach, why the hell should the government be in between them? if not to just be a conduit for stealing money in between…

Due to the variance in the socio economic structure of our society, I believe, it is not advisable to put our education system in private hands. It may be prudent to assume that children from the middle class families and upto the upper class of the society already are a part of school education system. The problem remains about children from lower income groups and the poorest of the poor. Although there may be some NGOs in the arena who are willing to impart education to this sector, but due to the vast majority of children’s population scattered across the length and breadth of the country in this group, it is very important that the government should take an active participation in educating them.

It is sympathetic and heartening to know that our country lack primary and secondary education. Lakhs of posts of teachers are lying vacant. I would like to go to the extent to saying that instead of pasting a rosy picture of India Inc., a large expenditure should be made to popularize education. Basic schooling deserved to get large budget allocation and reasonable amount of susidies.

Going by the present spending, we have a long way to go.

Liberalize Indian Education posted at IndianPad.com…

Let us go back to our Indian schooling experiences. Remember, you were always compared to the guy/gal who came first in class as saying, look that kid is smart, he/she comes first all the time. As if!!!

With regards to the competition to get into premier educational institutions, a smart and a progressive way to reduce competition and YET maintain IF NOT increase the quality of education is to increase the number of such premier institutions which will happen only if we invest in the necessary infrastructure in terms of land requirements, people requirements, curriculum, etc.

Here is a blog that compares the govt. spend on education as a percentage of GDP over the years and makes some interesting points. Due to the lack of time, I could not do the same for the 2006-07, the figures are available . Let me assume for a minute that the average GDP spend is going to be 4.6% in 2006-07 too. With the Quota bill passed, there is going to be more strain on this fund, as they need approximately Rs. 16,563.34 crore to spread the shit that they just passed in the parliament. I got the figure from a rediff article and I was even more surprised when I was going through it I found a line which says that India spends 0.37% of its GDP on higher education. So there you go figure, what’s wrong is that we are not spending enough money on our education. When you are not going to spend money on your education, you are not spending enough on infrastructure, teachers, and per student basis to provide a full educational experience.

Let’s say the Government gets out of the education business as you suggest. Who will have the money to do this on an All India basis. Remember, your contention is that there should be abundance of good colleges so the number of premier institutes increases in the entire country. So, you need a pan India solution. Would a private player have the resources to do so in a non profit manner? I doubt.

This is why a public-private partnership is required. Wherein the Govt. plays the role which it can play quite well that is to spend or let us say fund the education and the private sector uses the fund.

All schools should be registered as Non Profit Organizations but they would need to divulge the financial statements and subject themselves to audit by any body deemed fit to do so, create a Educational Regulatory Authority (ERA) on the lines of TRAI or IRDA. The ERA should consist of academicians, eminent & ordinary citizens, distinguished judges, businessmen, etc. Also, ERA should keep an eye on fees that are being charged by these educational institutions so as to ensure the accessibility to people who are not well off financially. Also, deserving candidates need scholarships, in India we do not get scholarships for undergraduation or graduation like they dole out in the US. ERA should also be able to allocate grants and scholarships. The corporate houses should be encouraged to create educational grants, a lot of Indian companies would be willing to do so just to improve their CSR profile.

I think that would be the ideal way to improve the quality and quantity of education. I would encourage your feedback and also criticism to my comment.

Lower costs?

Smarter kids?

A more pleasant educational experience for children while they are at school?

A higher percentage of kids schooled in subjects your personal biases require you to believe are important?

What’s the goal?

alphie, really? That’s a pretty broad statement. How do you know? Is that why most children go to private schools even in smaller cities, if they are available?

Monopoly service is not the same as better service. Free up the education section from government monopoly and the utterly incompetent UGC (after all its a bureaucracy), let unmitigated private enterprise into education sector, wait a decade or so, and then make such a board statement. Until then you have no basis for what you are saying. In fact there is case for the opposite – the case that Atanu is trying to make.