Education - Soumyadip - Imt Ghaziabad

LOW COST PRIMARY EDUCATION IN INDIA Innovation in Primary Education

Private Entry in Primary Education •

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Mode of entry • Partnership with Govt. – Preferable for Existing Private School Bodies – Government would provide infrastructure for the schools while the Private Player would provide manpower Government would provide the requisite fund to local government bodies for maintenance of school infrastructure

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Private Player would take care of the entire “Human Resource Management” i.e. Teacher Management

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Encouragement of Private Players to provide primary education – Government in return could provide Tax Exemption to the Corporate entering the education field

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Encouragement for rural/poor consumers to enroll in private schools – Microfinance facility for those who can wish to start business • Linking provision of micro finance to every girl child enrolled – Scholarship scheme for family who can not afford tuition fee

Private Primary Schools for India’s Poor •

Advantages over Government School – Pressure on the teachers to perform – Government teachers are usually • Burned out by heavy workloads ( involvement in non-teaching activities ) • Long commute ( mostly come from distant places )

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Features of Private School – Hire qualified teachers who belong to the region – Ideal Class Size  4 teachers and 140 students ( Ideal 1:35 Teacher Student Ratio )

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Affordability – Rural per capita monthly income – 612 Rs – Tuition fee – 10-15 percent of Monthly income – @ 75 Rs for Monthly Tuition Fee , Total Tuition Fee Collected ( 140 students ) – Rs 10500 – Salary disbursed / Teacher ( 4 Teacher ) – Rs 2450 – Saving per student enrolled – Rs 5 – Total Monthly Saving ( assuming 140 students ) – Rs 700 • Corpus of Saving would fund the micro-finance provision and scholarship scheme

Spending Pattern for Rural India

Source : NCAER ( 2007-08) and Central Ministry of Statistics

Positives of Private Investment in Primary Education •

Reduced Teacher Absenteeism – Private-school teachers are 8 percentage points less likely to be absent than publicschool teachers in the same village

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Reduced drop-out rate through improved quality of education Myths about drop-outs Myth 1. Parents are not interested in education ? Facts ( based on PROBE Report 1999 ) Is it important for a boy to be educated? 98% said yes Is it important for a girl to be educated? 89% said yes Should primary education be made compulsory for all children? 80% said yes Myth 2.Child labor is the obstacle ? Facts ( based on PROBE Report 1999 ) Proportion who performed wage labor on the day preceding the survey = 1%/ 5% (boys/girls)

Positives of Private Investment in Primary Education Actual Reason for drop-outs – Ignorance about the child’s needs – Pedagogy is so boring and insipid that children run away from classes – Teachers are rarely present – Lack of accountability of both teachers and heads of institutions

– Poor quality of education is one of the major reasons why parents make their children discontinue studies

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Improved accountability of both teacher and head of institutions – By charging tuition fee accountability will be expected

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Improved functional literacy

Steps towards Improvement in Quality of Education • Better Teacher Student Ratio – Ideal Student Teacher Ratio of 1:35 can be attained by recruiting 4 teachers for class of 140 students

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Hiring local qualified talent – Of the 198,000 para-teachers of 461 districts of the country 56.0% are graduate and above, 48.56% regular primary school teachers are graduate and above – The large percentage of qualified persons working as para teachers nullifies two major arguments put forth by the proponents of the Para Teacher scheme • Local educated youths are not available in rural areas • Highly qualified candidates do not want to serve in these areas

• Enforcing pre-service training and in-service training

Is Private Investment Sustainable in Primary Education ? •

80 % of all recognized primary schools are government run or supported

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But, if we take Kerala as an example – Every village has more than five primary schools. – 6,726 lower primary and 2,968 upper primary schools. – Of the primary schools 61.07% are private aided, 2.98% are private unaided and 35.95% are government schools

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In Indian Primary Education , Availability and Acceptability have been generated through recent schemes aimed at Universal Education – Availability • Access to 98% of population within one kilometer of their place of residence • Out of school children in 6-14 years age group stands at 3-4 % – Acceptability • 80 % of Rural Indians ( as per PROBE Report 1999 ) believe primary education be made compulsory for all children

Addressing Adaptability and Affordability •

Focus on mandatory pre-service training – Training adapted to multi-grade teaching, children’s language and cultural backgrounds, building teacher attitudes for addressing plurality and diversity in the classroom – Girls, scheduled caste and tribal children often face discrimination within the classroom. It is a challenge to address such issues through pre and in-service training program

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Provision of microfinance facility makes the concept self sustainable and further linking it with enrollment of female students will improve female enrollment

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Charging @ 75 Rs Month per student – Affordable for rural consumer as it helps to keep his saving at 10.74 % – Helps to cover salary of hiring teachers at level much above the pay given to para teachers  Honorarium of para teachers, who are appointed in regular schools, is in the range of Rs 1800-3000 per month  For the para teachers working in schools, which have been set up in unserved habitations, the honorarium is largely in the range of Rs 900-1200 per month

Conclusion •

Long term sustainability of any idea for rural/poor India has to look into – Accessibility – Acceptability – Adaptability – Affordability

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Because the proposal addresses all the above issues , it will stand the test of time

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By freeing government from manpower issues – the Government funds can be diverted towards building better school infrastructure – Money wasted on hiring primary school teachers ( avg. salary 5000 for fresher ) can be prevented specially in areas with high absenteeism

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Growing rural consumerism should be an encouraging sign for many corporate to enter the primary education sector – Will help to create positive brand image amongst rural consumers