One of the questions, of late, running in my mind has
been about the cost of education that was then and now, as my kid is getting
into his pre-kindergarten this year. This is not something that bolted out of
sky but a trend that has been in play for some years. I am not sure if I should
call this trend a fallout of growing affordability either in their finances or
in their mindset of parents. From financial perspective, if I have to look out
at the inflation indexed salary hikes and the corresponding rise in the cost of
education, I am sure they would be diverging and more so as we head into
future. This is only my guestimate (lack of data except for some news reports on
20% rise on cost since last year) and I may be wrong on this. The growth in
incomes has largely been led by the services industry. Most of us may be
optimistic about the growth potential but with growing protectionism and the
likely possibility of less workforce needed to do professional work with “automation
creep” into services, I am bit skeptical with delicate rays of hope.
I am late to the “Parents Distress” party on educating
their kids which I have been hearing about lakhs of rupees being spent every
year right from kindergarten. My parents were lucky as they got away spending
meagre sums to our education. I vaguely remember that my school fees has been
between Rs.12K-15K per year for standard 12 which was in 2002. Even if keep the
inflation at 10% average during 2002-17, the cost would have been about
Rs.50K-63K. Now this is only the tuition fee. During our schooling days, school
would ask for tuition fee and may be for books. But today, schools have become
one stop business hub for all your child schooling needs. You have to buy
school uniforms, notebooks, stationaries and there is a detailed documentation
on what you need to wear, which type of shoes to slip on and what sort of food
items to gulp on. It’s much more than a 4-star hotel etiquette being expected from
children these days. They also take you on the tour to NASA. The purpose of
uniform is defeated as not many parents could afford it now (mine included). It
plants the seed of disparity in the impressionable minds of students. I heard
from one of my relatives on how much they paid for their school books and
notebooks at 3-4X of the original cost. You could imagine the kind of money
that may be churning out at the back-end if you look at the bargain power of
these schools with the publishers/distributors as they buy it in bulk and they
sell it at 2-4X of original price to hapless parents (I am not blaming it on
all the schools but based on what I heard).
The plight becomes much more remorseful when they are
charged additional fees for special classes or coaching as they call it, for
certain standards. The central or the State board have devised a curriculum
based on their research and experience which should be completed within regular
working hours of the schools. But I don’t buy the argument of the need for a
special attention to studies. The kids in slumber hop on to their carriers to
school at 7:30 in the morning for special classes as the morning pressure and
sickness built into parent’s minds to send them off. The extra flabs and frills
are engulfing the regular school curricula in the names of sports, dance,
cultural, language and science labs. Not to mention the AC facilities within
the school as well as for transportation. IIT entrance exams is another fad
that parents are pushing their kids into algorithmic thinking right from
standard 6. May be in the future there would be an AI chip that can be embedded
into the child’s mind for enhancements as they are in gestation period for them to become what we want them to be.
“My Kid is born as a scientist” would possibly replace “I am blissful for my
kid to be healthy and good”. May be one day, I would heed into this socially
accustomed pressure but I would try not to accept it without a fight.
Recently saw a news article where parents were protesting
against the increasing cost of education and demanding the roll back of fee
hike by private schools in NCR region resulting in clashes with police1.
Quick googling resulted in one association for parents – All India Parents
Association on the front page which landed up in a blog page. I am not sure if
this an accepted organization where the grievances can be redressed. I need to
start to do my research and talk to knowledgeable persons in this field. But at
the outset if there are representations for labors, parties and communities, it
may be better that we have a recognized board (apart from the government
ministry for education) which can act as a collective body to represent the
plight of education. Sarcastically, if existing farmer/other associations can’t
get much of a help, we could only wonder the plausibility of such an
association’s existence. If someone come across anything, please share/post it
in comments for reference.
If we pull in the statistics of kids passed out of
certain school with certain background and see which kids have succeeded on
their own terms and merits, I tend to believe that students from humble
background may have done something different. I may be wrong but I have a strong
feeling on this (without data). Even the IIT professors and professional
organizations are saying that 75-80% of engineers are not employable2.
It becomes an exercise of discretion to provide a path for our kids that makes
them strong on their minds and body where they can stay relevant and compete
with anybody/anything (likely robots) in the future. Delhi court has recently passed a
verdict to CBSE that schools associated with it should not indulge in
commercial activities such as selling uniforms, books and stationaries inside
the school3 It mentions that circular has been passed on to schools
and who will monitor the compliance. The least we could do is to question on
this credence. Arrogance in the attitude of some schools is disparaging the
respect that once we had for education. I will be beginning my innings now and
see what rights can be fought.
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