A good number of students who were enrolled before the pandemic have not returned.
New Delhi: The private schools in India are seeing a decrease in enrolment of new students post the Covid-19 pandemic, while a good number of students who were enrolled before the pandemic have not returned back. It has led to continuation of misery for the private school employees who are working in low-budget schools. The Sunday Guardian tried to talk with stakeholders concerned to understand the actual situation post-pandemic, had the students returned to schools and are paying fees. It is clear that all the “high-budget private schools” have returned to their pre-pandemic strength and are able to pay the salaries of their employees. But the situation of low-budget schools has not improved much. In general terms, low-budget private schools in India are referred to those educational institutions which charge between Rs 500-Rs 2,000 per month from the enrolled students. In India, there are roughly 4.5 lakh private schools out of which 80% are “low-budget” which employ approximately eight and half million employees.
“Our school had 1,500 students before the pandemic started. The successive lockdowns and the economic impact on guardians had forced 300 students to leave our school, this is the story of most of the low-budget or middle-budget private schools in Delhi-NCR,” said Kamlesh Choudhary, who teaches mathematics in a Ghaziabad based private school. Asked about the restoration of salary, he added, “I have not got five months of my Covid lockdown salary; the management told us that they had suffered the loss of more than Rs five crore due to the lockdown, hence it is not possible to give that salary. I am working at a decreased salary of 20% post-pandemic.”
According to the Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE) survey, in India, nearly 11.4 crore students are enrolled with the private school system/sector. The private school industry contributes roughly Rs 1.75 lakh crore to the Indian economy. In all likelihood, the industry suffered a loss of 15-20% during the pandemic.
The situation outside big metros is quite bad. Many schools have closed while many are working with reduced staff. In big metro cities, top private schools managed to collect fees from the students, most of whom belong to the rich and affluent class, while in semi-urban and rural areas, the scene was quite different.
Hareram Pandit, 54, a faculty of Sanskrit used to teach class seven and eight students at Saraswati Vidya Mandir, school in Begusarai, Bihar. But, the school removed him from the job due to less intake of students after the lockdown. “The number of students has decreased by 60% since the pandemic. The administration clearly stated that we have to work at a reduced salary of 50%, which was not acceptable for me. Now, I am looking to teach in online coaching platform BYJU’s. My son who is an engineer is helping me to get in touch with them and learn the technique of online teaching.”
As per various estimates, private school teachers in India get one-fourth the salaries received by the government school teachers, which was reduced even further during the pandemic.