It is difficult to interpret the trend of increasing enrollment in private schools, especially enrollment in private budgeted schools, as anything other than poor households that place a premium on quality of education.
The Karnataka government’s decision to impose a 30% cut on tuition fees in private schools for the current academic year (2020-21) in view of the pandemic, the government has also ordered that schools cannot charge any fee more than tuition. annual fee: it is the type of regulatory approach that has held back education in the country. While schools say such fee restrictions mean they cannot maintain operations and pay to retain staff, the state government appears to cave in to parents who claim that most private schools have imposed significant pay cuts or even laid off to many teachers. , in addition to making other cost cuts. However, the Karnataka government – indeed, all others contemplating similar measures – must bear in mind that the issue is not simply one of current costs, but of maintaining delivery over the long term. More importantly, if the government were to invest in improving the quality of education delivery and learning outcomes in their schools, as well as ensuring greater Internet / digital access among poor households, that would be a more significant bulwark against high rates from private schools.
Covid-19 and school closures have made online education an imperative, although the issue of access, both material (devices, connectivity, content, etc.) and in terms of digital literacy / knowledge, has raised questions about what this means for students from poor families, most of whom would still be in public schools. The recently released ASER 2020 Wave 1, which looks at the school education landscape during the first six months of Covid-19 clouded the 2020-21 academic year, finds that both public and private schools in Karnataka have had their strengths and weaknesses. With increased access to smartphones and other similar devices, private school students in the state could benefit more from the delivery of online education, but in terms of access to grade-level texts, overall outlay for learning materials, and assignment of learning activities, the state government schools had the leadership. Therefore, if the state government were to focus on establishing more schools and facilitating access to digital / online learning among poor households in the state, whom a fee reduction measure could benefit, it could offer a serious alternative for households most affected by out-of-pocket expenses in education and dispense with the need to control or limit fees. The latter would simply wipe out low-budget private schools, which some households see as an alternative to government school education.
It is difficult to interpret the trend of increasing enrollment in private schools, especially enrollment in private budgeted schools, as anything other than poor households that place a premium on quality of education. If Karnataka government schools are equipped to offer high-quality education with ease of offline / online access, there is no way that many households will opt for tuition payment instead of free education.
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