In recent times, the union government and the states are unravelling plans to ‘carry education to the masses’ by announcing grandiose schemes by which every child will be educated up to Std 8 atleast. The government and other agencies seem to have forgotten that the archaic rules for running the government-aided education system makes it impossible to provide quality education to the vast number of consumers.
Maharashtra, which is one of the better run states from the education viewpoint, is a classical example of the gap between what is desired and what is produced in this field. For example, most schools in the city fall in the category of ‘aided schools’. Most such schools give the consumer a subsidised education and everybody seems satisfied with the fact that ‘education is not being commercialised’.
However, the ground realities show a dismal scenario. The government of Maharashtra insists that a school will get a license only if it is run by a Trust or Society, leading to a rush for registration of trusts and societies which can run such schools. No capital expenditure is granted to the school, which means that a building worth crores should be set up by the Trust/Society from its own funds. To make things worse, the school is allowed to appoint only a fixed number of staff in proportion to the number of children in the school. The teachers, appointed as per the settled pay scale by the government, are vetted by the government and its inspectors, leading to immense scope for corruption, nepotism and other malpractices.
The Trust or Society running a school is literally at the mercy of the education department of the state government. Appointments in aided schools are not necessarily to the liking of the school management. The number of staff needed and available is often inadequate. To maintain high standards in the field of education, various managements give their teachers added incentives form their own pockets. The government’s response to staff shortage has been to recommend the appointment of assistant teachers (or shikhsan sevaks as they are called) at a nominal salary of Rs4,000 per month.
This neglect in the field of education has led to practices where Trusts or Societies charge ‘donations’, charge large sums for pre-school kindergarten classes (which do not come within the purview of the government) and give their auditoriums and grounds on hire for weddings and exhibitions. Unfortunately, it is the consumer who is at the receiving end of all these shenanigans between the government and the school managements.
Comments