The Vice Principal of a renowned private school in Ahmedabad told the father of class 9 student, who is suffering from epilepsy, “Get her enrolled in the open school, so that she gets free from the bondage of going to school every day and has to go to school only to appear in the exam.”

In response, the parent of student “X” said, “Madam, in this disease, it is necessary for the child to sleep at least for 9 to 10 hours, otherwise it could trigger an epilepsy attack, therefore, if “X” does not get enough sleep on any particular day, she is not able to go to school, due to this even in the previous schools “X” did not have 75 percent attendance, but no teacher or principal ever gave such objectionable advice, being a teacher how can you say such absurd things, do you not know that doing this can have a negative psychological effect on the child’s mind, her overall personality development may also be hampered etc.”

Such insensitive and unethical advice cannot be expected from the Vice Principal, that too in front of the sick student, but in the transition period in the education sector, it is difficult to envisage that teachers are sensitive. Now the layer of difference between teacher and butcher is being eroded very fast. Perhaps therefore many children in Kota and across the country are committing suicide every year.

If we are talking about facilities in private schools, hardly 5 percent of the schools have playgrounds. In such a situation, how physically fit will children remain by playing indoor games? Generally, private schools neither have a library nor any first aid facility. Nowadays, counsellors are also being hired in private schools to advise children on various issues, but their usefulness is also under question, as issues related to children are mounting day by day in every school. Today, the cases of drugs addiction of school goers and selling of nude picture & videos of schoolgirls in dark market is also flourishing particularly in metro & big cities, but schoolteachers & managements are doing nothing.

In private schools, an annual fee of Rs.1.0 to 1.5 lakh is being collected from parents right from nursery class & onwards. Bus charges are being taken separately. Parents have to spend money in the name of art and craft and other activities. The standard of education in most of such schools is not up to mark. The infrastructure & academic qualities of many private schools are worse than government schools. Due to low salary of teachers in private schools, inefficient & ignorant teachers are teaching. Even, they are not trained in teaching.

Owing to unemployment, youth are ready to teach in school even at low salary, but their household needs are not met with the salary, on account of this, they have to give tuition. It is easiest to convince the parents of children for tuition. For this, children are taught in school in such a way that they do not understand the topics, even they do not cover entire syllabus. Also, in the annual examination in the high school, 20 marks out of 20 in internal assessment tests, projects, extracurricular activities are given to only those children, who take tuition. This process is not transparent and compliance with the rules by teachers is not ensured.

Because of the desire to earn huge money, 40 to 50 children are taught in a class, in which the number of intelligent children is hardly 4 to 5. Teachers pay attention only to the intelligent children in the class, due to which most of the children’s concepts are not clear about the subject. However, it is true that if teachers teach properly & pay attention towards every student in the school, then children will never need to take tuition.

Currently, the school is charging commission on the purchase of pen, pencil, copy, school bag, shoes, socks, dress, book etc. Parents are forced to buy all these from a particular shop so that they can get commission on each item. Private schools pretend to sell books at MRP, as their MRP is many times higher than their actual price.

According to a report by the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE), the total number of schools in India in 2022 was 14.08 lakh, while the number of private schools was around 3.40 lakh. Even though the number of government schools is high, financially strong parents prefer to get enrolled their children in the private schools so that they may become proficient in English, be able to speak English fluently, gain proficiency in communication skills etc. In this category, financially weak parents are also included, because they feel that their children will become self-reliant by studying in a private school.

If we look at it, such an ecosystem has been created in the country today, in which government schools are being looked down upon. It is believed that only if children study in a private school, their future will be safe & bright. Private schools have understood this weakness of parents very well. They have come to know that parents can go to any extent for the better future of their child, that is, they can pay any price to make the future of the child bright. Therefore, teachers and management of private schools do not leave any prospect to extract money from the parents.

In nutshell, we can say that the level of knowledge of teachers in most private schools is average as qualified & efficient teachers do not like to teach in private schools due to low salaries. Education has become a business, because of which sensitivity and humanity is also disappearing in the temples of education. The aim of school management has become to earn profits instead of imparting knowledge to everyone. Therefore, the aura of private schools across the country is being continuously made bright, attractive, and impressive, so that the common people themselves get attracted towards them.

The appearance of English is still very positive in the Hindi belt of the country. Therefore, common people easily fall prey to the allurements offered by private schools to make their children competent in English and develop their overall personality. School was once called the temple of education, but today it has become a market and, in this market, even after paying huge fees, parents are not able to say anything in front of teachers due to fear.

Satish Singh, Ahmedabad based Senior Columnist,Views are personal