Reality of School Education in India

Wanted to assemble some of the interesting articles, data, etc. on schools in India in one place. That way I can forward this link every time I have a discussion/debate with someone on the net.

A typical conversation with an average middle class/rich person about education of poor children will bring up the following questions or stereotypes:

1. Poor parents don’t care about their children’s education
2. Poor kids have no where to go but government schools
3. Private schools for the poor? which private school will take my servant’s child? Private schools discriminate.
4. Hence they need to be regulated and coersed into taking more poor kids
5. Low budget poor school? Are you talking about those fly by night operators, who exploit poor illiterate poor parents and run with their money?
6. Those schools have very poor standards. Also, there are not enough to teach millions of poor kids
7. Private schools for the poor is a joke. It is better for poor kids to go to government schools since they at least have some infrastructure and facilities
8. We need to shut down all these private schools, the ones that are enticing the poor to send their kids. We should file a PIL. Why is the government not doing something to shut them down
9. Poor parents are gullible. They fall for the glitz and glamour of private school. They think uttering some English words is education. They are being fooled.

Start your prilgrimage of discovery, separate reality from myth, at the feet of Shri Tooley baba.  Check out

• Educating Amaretch: Private schools for poor and new frontiers for investors
• Check out first two links on this page by Tooley
• Prof James Tooley’s website at E G West Centre

Note, Tooley did similar research in China, Ghana, Delhi, Hyderabad, etc. The problems and how humans respond to incentives is universal.

Then you have to read my piece (I will find out if you skip this step)

• Choice vs inspector raj

Alternate model: Voucher, Cash Stipend, Tuition Reimbursement Schemes:

• Centre for Civil Society and research page
• More CCS research

Pratham and ASER. Good place for data on education in India

• Note the following is on rural India. ASER (Rural)

May not sound like much. But remember we are talking rural India. Imagine what the numbers are in urban India. And India is only urbanising, not ruralising!

India leads in Teacher absence. How will you solve this, especially if you are not a fan of private schools, competition, vouchers, etc. Check out the paper:

• Teacher Absence in India: A Snapshot

Deal with your myths:
I remember reading that many parents in Bihar chose not to let their kid go to school. Reason: in these schools (read local government schools) there was no one to supervise the kids. Older kids were incharge, whom the parents feared would teach little ones bad habits like smoking. Though the PROBE report is from 1999, it was very influential.

• PROBE

Some interesting articles from The Economist, the most interesting magazine out there as far as I am concerned,

• Sweden and Finland

Related posts:

1. School Choice Campaign
2. Choice for me, inspection for you
3. I wasn’t joking, Mr Feynman
4. Letter to editor – Deccan Chronicle
5. Earlier attempts: Why International Sanctions Could be Good News for India