Unhappy Parents, Unhappy Teachers and Unhappy School Managements – What Ails in Indian Education System

Isn't it an irony that we are thinking to build a great Education System with distressed parents, disenchanted teachers & disillusioned school founders?

There remains no ambiguity that the Education System is the backbone of any country and if not handled properly it will spoil future generations. So reforming the education system should be the utmost priority.

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Although I was thinking to pen down this since a long time, finally, I could get some time today to write with the experience of the past few year in this domain. I am of the firm opinion that we need to redefine our education system framework keeping all stakeholders in mind otherwise we will not be able to reach our goal of high quality yet affordable education.

Why are parents distressed?

Parents need to go through a different experience when they plan for admission in the first place or even if they need to change the school of their wards for any reason. They need to arrange funds, take loans and prepare themselves for an Interview. Although admission is a just one-time process, real ordeal starts after that. They need to pay the massive amount for admission and then there is the regular expense of hefty monthly fees, uniform, books and other things from time to time. 

You need to buy everything from school and if you try to get something at a lower cost from the open market then schools will make sure that there is at least one clause added which forces you to buy everything from the school. I could never understand why can’t my younger one use the books of the elder one? Why can’t we learn the concept of reusability of resources and optimize expenses? A penny saved is a penny earned. Moreover, this helps us in saving the environment by producing less number of books every year. 

In a nutshell, parents are burdened with fixed and recurring cost and they have no option other than paying same. They are ready to do anything for better education and this becomes an opportunity for schools businesses to encash that feeling of parents.

Why are teachers disenchanted?

On the 'Teachers Day' this year, Indian Express quoted that 65% percent of teachers are not happy however I believe this percentage of “unhappy teachers” is much more than that. Teachers are always working hard for their students, preparing lesson plans, worksheets, working on creating assignments and giving them notes, keeping parents updated and doing everything to help the kids learn and grow in the best possible manner. Happy teachers create happy learners hence if they are not happy with what they are doing, how can we expect that they will spread happiness and positivity among learners?

Every year we celebrate Teacher’s day by glorifying this noble profession with expressions of gratitude, I simply wonder why this admiration dies down after the “Teacher’s Day” event. 

Teaching is less paid and then there are a lot of ill practices at schools in terms of payment except for few schools who strictly adhere to pay commission and other good policies for the benefit of teachers. Teachers too have financial requirements, someone who wants to be a teacher does not mean that he/she doesn't need good salaries and other employment benefits. Being one of the leaders in “Teacher Recruitment” in India, we have witnessed several instances when a lot many schools approached us with the requirement of salaries even less than you offer to your office boy. How on the earth someone can think that they can run schools with such a thought process.

60-70% of preschools pay very less to their teachers or in a way I can say my office boy gets a better salary than 60-70% of pre School teachers. This is really a shame, either you run a school venture or stop it but do not run at the cost of good teachers.

Two recent advertisements for hiring teachers and that too in Delhi/NCR region so you can imagine payout in Tier-2/3 cities.

Insufficient salaries are not restricted to low-cost private schools but also to international schools as well, they charge a good amount of fees from parents that range from Rs.3 Lakhs to 8 Lakhs per annum still school management prefer cheap labor. You will find more women in school teaching job as compared to men, as women are not considered as the primary bread earner of a family and hence their salaries are less as compared to the fee structure that these school charge. Most of the women employees in these schools are financially dependent on their husbands for expenditure like a home, car or other high-value assets in the family, their salary is almost one third or even less than what their husbands earn in MNC. The school salary is just like an additional income for them.

Schools spend lots of money on facilities but when it comes to paying to teachers they literally struggle sometimes. I personally believe that teachers need to be happy and motivated then only they can make a better education ecosystem.

Why are school owners disillusioned?

I think this is due to the basic flaw in the model of Education System. The government wants all schools to work as Trust/Societies and do not want them to make any money(profits) out of it, on the other hand, I could hardly find school owners (except a few) who do not want to make money.  I feel they are right as well, someone who spent crores of the fund in creating a school, worked day and night, spent the sleepless night to built a great school then he also needs to get some benefit out of it as other founders of companies. What a paradox is it, the system doesn't want to invest and at the same time, it doesn't allow any investor to earn from his/her investment if he/she invests in Education System.

The government wants schools to pay salaries as per norms, wants to keep capping on fees they charge, follow RTE act and other policies but I don’t think the same will be possible without support from the government. The government also needs to think about school owners they are not bad-boys, they are one of us who want to invest, work hard and make money. Most of the money is invested by businessmen or politician and their main interest are to make money like others. Setting up school requires a lot of capital and its impossible for any educationist or a common man to build a school without huge financial support.

Schools also struggle to get quality teachers as 1000s of B.Ed colleges are running in remote areas without teachers and students. People can go and get a degree without even attending a single class, they just need to enroll in the course and get a degree after 2 years.

If the basis of setting school is not right, if the motivation of becoming a teacher is not honest then what kind of knowledge and values will be transferred to our future generation. And, we think we will build a great education system in India?

Possible Solution :

As setting up schools require huge funds and the majority of funds go into land acquisition and setting up infrastructure.  If the government can set up the infrastructure and give this to private players, as they are good in execution and government is good in creating infrastructure. Of course, how they run schools need to be well monitored by the proper system in place. Indian Education System does not need AC classrooms, swimming pools, activities like horse riding and an international faculty but we need an education system that guarantees the right quality and affordable fee structure. An education system with proper value inculcated in it.

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Once schools are developed by the government and run by private players then these private players will be in a position to offer better salaries to teachers and low-cost schooling to parents. I believe this might stop a couple of ill practices as well. There should be a certain incentive on the performance of these private players who are running a school.

Looking forward to seeing "Education System with happy Parents, happy Teachers  and happy School founders"

Source: 

Amit Gupta

Founder & CEO at NCR Eduservices