Education is no business

The state government’s decision to penalise schools that demand donations from admission seekers with a fine as high as 10 times the amount is a welcome move, but it begs an important question: how are the authorities planning to implement this? For, the operative parts in the government resolution are ‘schools that get caught’, and ‘action will be taken if the complaint is found to be genuine’.

This is akin to saying that any student caught misbehaving in class will be hauled up before the disciplinary committee and penalised. As any parent who has ever knocked on a school’s doors to secure admission for her ward will tell you, neither do schools put the demand on paper nor do they give you receipts stating the real purpose.

Thus, the new rule effectively means the onus is now on parents to blow the whistle on erring schools. This brings up the second point: how do the authorities plan to safeguard the interests of citizens who, if they complain against a school, run the risk of becoming persona non grata not just in that particular institution, but probably all over the neighbourhood, if not the entire city?

Clearly, schools are not going to be quaking in their boots at the mere announcement of this new government resolution. So, what could the solution be? Sting operations by the authorities could be one.

Encouraging anonymous complaints and probing them could be another. Stricter audits of the accounts of schools could be a third. Long-lasting change in our schooling system, however, will only come about when promoters stop seeing education as just another lucrative business and think of it as a noble cause that helps to lay the foundation of an enlightened society.