India of the 21st century is young, ambitious, aspirational and eager to bridge the gap with developed economies. It is poised to be a global power in this century. This is reflected in the accepted estimate regarding threefold expansion of Indian economy to USD 7.25 trillion by 2030 and clock an average growth rate of 8% over the next 15 years. While the policy headlines in the media paint a glorious tomorrow for India, they contradict the possible vision that arises from the recent move by several state governments to control independent schools, the most basic for any emerging economy. No one denies the need to bring in transparency and disclosure to arrest commercialisation in school education. It is the straitjacket approach to put all genres of schools in one bucket, which is disturbing and will digress the nation’s attention away from the development and growth story.
As per our own ASER report and OECD’s PISA findings, we are still grappling with putting numeracy and literacy on track. In the meanwhile, the world has moved on to Industry 4.0 era, where technological innovations and artificial intelligence have become the order of the day. Countries such as the US, Finland and Singapore had the foresight to make huge investments in R&D and innovation in education that are now leading education initiatives in the 21st century and adequately preparing the young to live in a complex, multi-dimensional and global society.
According to Tony Wagner, from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, today’s students need to master seven survival skills to thrive in the new world of work. These skills are: critical thinking and problem solving; collaboration and leadership; agility and adaptability; initiative and entrepreneurialism; effective oral and written communication; accessing and analysing information; and curiosity and imagination. Unfortunately, India still has an education system that propagates rote learning, leaving little scope for creativity, analytical thinking and problem solving.
Recently, International Labour Organisation (ILO) released its 2017 World Employment and Social Outlook, which estimates that Indian unemployment rate will remain at 3.4% in 2017-18. From the employers’ perspective, finding the right people for the right jobs seems to be an increasingly uphill task. CEOs and HR heads across industries often lament the dearth of leaders, independent thinkers, self-starters, problem solvers or even people with pure common sense in the workforce. If our students are unemployable right now, what happens at the onset of the fourth industrial revolution? Where and how are we building the skills that Tony Wagner refers to in India? How can we even aspire to equip our children with skills and knowledge for the 21st century?
Government has an obligation to ensure that every citizen receives a good education, either from a public or a private source. While systems and processes in government schools should ensure accountability for delivery of high quality education, regulation of private education must seek to ensure the same while encouraging investments into the education sector. The Right to Education Act, 2009 has imposed legal obligations on the Central and the state governments to provide elementary education to every child of 6-14 in the country. However, the low public spend of 2.9% of GDP and a young demography have generated an enhanced demand for private schools. This has led to the growth of 25% independent schools, with 43% of total enrolments.
In order to address the speculation on fee increase by independent schools, FICCI ARISE (Alliance for Reimagining School Education) analysed the operational expenditure made by Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) and equivalent private schools. The findings show that the increase in staff cost per student YoY varies from 12%-16% in different genres of schools. Independent schools have a healthier student teacher ratio, as compared to KVs (independent schools 1:20; KVs 1:32). Independent schools also introduce new pedagogical practices and have a wide range of co-curricular and sporting activities to offer. Further the capex cost, interest cost, rentals that independent schools have to incur is not applicable to the government schools.
To provide a workable solution to government, FICCI ARISE and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, in consultations with some state governments have prepared a model code for “Self-Financed Independent Schools (Establishment and Regulation)”, which was released at the first FICCI ARISE conference in April. The Model Code has also been aligned to the landmark decisions of the Apex Court on the aspects of operation and management of private unaided schools.
A regulatory framework of this kind will create the conditions under which private providers can operate effectively and efficiently and deliver what both the government and parents wish to see—quality education. The Code has also been shared with NITI Aayog, all state governments and Ministry of Human Resource and Development. Private participation in education is clearly no panacea, but, if sensibly regulated and suitably encouraged, it can provide governments with a highly effective and efficient way of meeting their educational goals.
A recent OECD note on the PISA results relates higher autonomy of schools in curricula, assessments and resource allocation to better performance of students. We’ve seen how autonomy has helped our own IITs, IIMs and the Indian School of Business produce outstanding results and students. Why not recognise the role that private schools play within our education system? Why not give them autonomy to innovate in their own context? And hold them accountable for their performance. The time to act is now. Otherwise it may just be too late.
A. Didar Singh is Secretary General, FICCI