Commercialization of education in India, It's current state guide

• Jan 17, 2024
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Commercialization of education means advertising the product (schools, playschools, universities) in a way that appeals to the consumer (student and parent). The money put in advertising and infrastructural investment in keeping with the advertisement is then remitted to the consumers. Thus, if consumers seek better education and educational facilities, they have to spend bigger bucks. “Corporate models? of education in which students are viewed as ‘customers’ are not appropriate.

Education is a unique activity in a democratic society that differs markedly from both business and government.  Education is one of the most basic rights, that every human should have access to, independent of their race, gender, color, ethnicity, or income. Commercialization of education in India has been exponentially growing and has been a problem for the citizens. There have been a lot of new institutes, universities, and schools being opened in India to increase the literacy rate, standard of living, and GDP.

India has over 1.5 million K–12 schools, with over 250 million students enrolled. Of this, while 25 percent of India’s schools are private, they enroll over 40 percent of the student population. There is no doubt that the majority of Indians prefer sending their child to a private school over a government school, ceteris paribus. This is true for rural areas as well, which saw student enrolment in private schools rise from 18.7 percent in 2006 to 25.6 percent in 2011, according to an EY-FICCI report. It is no surprise that attainment levels and learning outcomes of students in private schools on average outdo those of government schools. 

A report by NCAER shows that 65 percent of private school students can meet class two-level reading criteria, as opposed to 45 percent for government school students. In math, it is 57 percent for private schools compared to 39 percent in government schools. This clearly shows that private schools are preferred over public ones, which is why there has been a significant increase in the number of private institutes in recent years.

THE CURRENT STATE IN INDIA AND REASONS FOR IT:

The data presented by the HRD ministry in Parliament two weeks ago revealed that enrolment of students in private schools has gone up to 8.3 crore in 2017-18 from 6.9 crore in 2013-14. In government schools, the number has dipped from 19.9 crore in 2011-12 to 18.9 crore in 2016-17. The number of enrolments has gone down by over 91 lakh in government schools, according to the data. As shown by the data, there has been an increase in the number of private schools and this is because private schools promise to provide a more quality education which in turn leads to more students being enrolled and more profit for them. 

It’s no secret that college tuition is expensive, but the surprising part maybe how the uptick in costs has led to a 51% dropout rate, according to a new study. An Assocham survey showed that 65% of parents spend more than half their take-home pay on their children's education, and extra co-curricular activities placing a significant burden on their family budget.

According to the survey, parents spending on a single child’s education has gone up from Rs 35,000 in 2005 to over Rs 94,000 in 2011 on such items and activities as integral to the school curriculum like fees, transport books, uniforms, stationery, building fund, educational trips, extra tuitions, and extra-curricular activities. There have been prime examples of this in recent years where there have been fee hikes which have led to several protests and court cases too.

 One of the examples is of a pretty well-known government-owned school that had a fee hike. Earlier, the fees for Kendriya Vidyalaya students increased three-fold from Rs 4,500 to Rs 12,000 annually. The KV fee hike impacts 11 lakh students in 1,090 schools.

Another famous institute- IIT Bombay also faced something similar recently. The IIT Council had announced an increase in the annual fee from Rs 25,000-50,000 to Rs 2 lakh in all 23 IITs in September. Students of IIT Bombay on Thursday renewed their protests against the tenfold hike in fees for MTech programs across the 23 IITs. Students at the premier institute got together to show solidarity with protests at other IIT campuses. 

Statistics show that the majority of parents spend on average more than Rs 18 lakh–20 lakh in raising a child by the time their teen graduates from high school, which is high, considering the average income of an individual in India.

One of the most basic reasons for this is because the quality of education these days is measured by the amount of money you invest. The more well-known a school is with real fees, the better the education. This has become the unfortunate belief/norm in India now, which is going to be hard to break.

Adding on, India does face high global competition in terms of education, and With more people willing to go abroad for their masters and post-graduation, the private schools here are increasing their fees, knowing the fact they will be able to attract students. And the government with insufficient funds to provide education is not able to put a restriction on these malpractices. And with Foreign universities entering India solely with a profit motive, also puts more pressure on Indian universities to increase their fees.

Another very strong reason is the number of private/public educational institutes vs the population growth and demand for education in India. Growing demand for quality education, opportunities abroad, growing consciousness about the education in India comparativeness, and governmental inability to cope with the rising demands have resulted in widespread education and thereby educational institutions in the hands of private people.

Every year, the number of students going for higher professional education is increasing in India, and therefore, good opportunity exists for all these colleges to make money by offering such courses. While the Government is committed to providing primary education and certain facilities/subsidies for higher education, given the higher cost involved in the establishment of higher education institutes, we are witnessing the entry of the private sector to run educational institutions. While commercialization may only be regarded as a connotative thing, it has its positive impacts too.

MERITS & DEMERITS of commercialization of education

While commercialization may only be regarded as a connotative thing, it has its positive impacts too.

FUTURE:

The future is uncertain, still one can still predict it. There are a lot of factors that play a vital role in the education system such as technology, economic position, population, poverty level, and political factors.

If we mention the longer-term scenario of Indian education it's no less encouraging. The way, during which the reformation within the education sector is being administered, little question the education scenario of the country, will change very soon. ranging from the first education system, the govt is now taking various steps to universalize education within the country. Various nongovernment organizations (NGOs) have also come to the fore to hitch the revolution.

At the upper educational level, significant changes have taken place within the system. within the past few years, the scientific and technological developments within the country have attracted international attention. But the requirements of 21st-century human life aren't only associated with work and employment and profit making. they're far more nuanced and depend upon individual, community, national, and international priorities. We sleep in an interdependent world in any case. Why we must learn is about an equivalent as asking what our current layers of needs are. The government's education expenditure as a percentage of GDP has never ever risen above 4.3% of GDP, despite the target of 6% having been set as far back as 1968 by the Kothari Commission.

The country’s education system seems many graduates per annum but the key challenges before the govt are- Improving access and, quality in the least levels of education, Increasing funding in education, Improving Infrastructure, Improving, Management, Improving literacy rates, and Universalization of education. Over a while, Education has become a commodity in India, especially Higher Education.

All the genres of society are so overly obsessed with education that it has devalued the real essence of education. As the world progresses, the demand for higher quality education in India is going to increase, in order to be in pace with global competition and development. There is going to be an increase in the number of private institutes which probably does mean that commercialization of education is going to increase, but as we progress, people are going to get smarter and will understand the real value of education.

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