Poor kids may get vouchers for schooling

NEW DELHI: Can a poor family choose to send a child to a private school, without bearing the entire cost?

Can a poor woman choose to deliver her baby in a private hospital, with the government bearing the cost?

The answer may be yes, if the Planning Commission’s new suggestions for government financing of health and education are implemented. The approach paper to the Eleventh Five Year Plan, now being finalised, is likely to suggest a system of redeemable vouchers for the poor. This will allow them to exercise choice and will be “a more powerful method of enforcing accountability”.

Lamenting the high rate of teacher absenteeism and the abysmal learning achievements of students in government schools, the paper says, “Enabling people to choose between available public or private schools (by giving entitlements that can be reimbursed at the school instead of free of cost admission to a specific school) and thus creating competition among schools could be considered.”

But not everybody is impressed with these plans for voucher payments. “Plans of this kind have been talked about for years,” says Bibek Debroy, secretary general of the PHDCCI.