“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”
— John Dewey
Chanakya, the great Indian teacher, philosopher and economist, once said, “Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth”. Today, parents want to give their children better education and make their future secure. Modern schools that are equipped with all the latest facilities are the best bet to make your child rise in life. Every school tries to offer a top-notch experience to fulfill the demands of parents and survive in the fierce global market. Many private schools are adapting new ideas for teaching. Instead of using chalk and duster, private schools are using a white board, marker and digital boards to show pictures or explain theories. This technique of teaching makes subjects easier to understand and helps students enjoy the process. But it is just one side of a coin. Many A-list institutions have had a massive fee hike, making them unaffordable for the common folk. We also need to realize that schools are not providing facilities just to educate children, but also to make money out of it. It is a fair deal but the money-making business should not reach a point of compelling parents to cut down their expenditure on other essentials in order to fund their child’s education.
The basic private school fee structure is already at the high end, and they also hike the school fees every year. People belong to different pay scales, and it is not possible for all parents to invest in huge fees for their children. In private jobs, an employee gets an average increment of 7%; whereas, the school fee hike is more than 10% every year. The top management in private schools keeps telling parents that the money is required for the staff salary and improving the infrastructure of their school. It is crucial for the government to ask private schools to seek prior sanction and give a detailed income and expenditure account.
The Indian government has to take some serious steps to control this never-ending fee hikes of private schools by making a concrete plan. The quality of public schools in both rural and urban areas should be worked on. The fee problem can be resolved by making a category system, which divides schools into four grades- A, B, C & D. They can be further sub-graded into — high and low. So, all the schools in India will get split into total eight grades. The government can decide grades of each school based on their academic results, infrastructure, cultural activities, sports, etc. According to these grades, the school fees can be preset. The government should monitor the performance of schools every year and update the grades once in two years. This system will help both parents as well as private schools.
Fee hike, along with a shortage of teachers, has drastically affected education, specially for the poor. Read about how it can be eradicated here.
