LOW COST PRIMARY EDUCATION

IN INDIA

Innovation in Primary Education

 Private Entry in Primary Education
• Mode of entry
• Partnership with Govt.
– Preferable for Existing Private School Bodies
– Government would provide infrastructure for the schools while the Private
Player would provide manpower
• Government would provide the requisite fund to local government bodies for maintenance of
school infrastructure

• Private Player would take care of the entire “Human Resource Management” i.e. Teacher
Management

• Encouragement of Private Players to provide primary education

– Government in return could provide Tax Exemption to the Corporate entering the
education field

• Encouragement for rural/poor consumers to enroll in private schools

– Microfinance facility for those who can wish to start business
• Linking provision of micro finance to every girl child enrolled
– Scholarship scheme for family who can not afford tuition fee
 Private Primary Schools for India’s Poor
• Advantages over Government School
– Pressure on the teachers to perform
– Government teachers are usually
• Burned out by heavy workloads ( involvement in non-teaching activities )
• Long commute ( mostly come from distant places )

• Features of Private School

– Hire qualified teachers who belong to the region
– Ideal Class Size  4 teachers and 140 students ( Ideal 1:35 Teacher Student Ratio )

• Affordability
– Rural per capita monthly income – 612 Rs
– Tuition fee – 10-15 percent of Monthly income
– @ 75 Rs for Monthly Tuition Fee , Total Tuition Fee Collected ( 140 students ) – Rs 10500
– Salary disbursed / Teacher ( 4 Teacher ) – Rs 2450
– Saving per student enrolled – Rs 5
– Total Monthly Saving ( assuming 140 students ) – Rs 700
• Corpus of Saving would fund the micro-finance provision and scholarship
scheme
 Spending Pattern for Rural India

Source : NCAER ( 2007-08) and Central Ministry of Statistics

 Positives of Private Investment in Primary
Education
• Reduced Teacher Absenteeism
– Private-school teachers are 8 percentage points less likely to be absent than public-
school teachers in the same village

• Reduced drop-out rate through improved quality of education

Myths about drop-outs

Myth 1. Parents are not interested in education ?
Facts ( based on PROBE Report 1999 )
Is it important for a boy to be educated? 98% said yes
Is it important for a girl to be educated? 89% said yes
Should primary education be made compulsory for all children? 80% said yes

Myth 2.Child labor is the obstacle ?

Facts ( based on PROBE Report 1999 )
Proportion who performed wage labor on the day preceding the survey = 1%/ 5%
(boys/girls)
 Positives of Private Investment in Primary
Education
Actual Reason for drop-outs
– Ignorance about the child’s needs
– Pedagogy is so boring and insipid that children run away from classes
– Teachers are rarely present

– Lack of accountability of both teachers and heads of institutions

– Poor quality of education is one of the major reasons why parents make their children
discontinue studies

• Improved accountability of both teacher and head of institutions

– By charging tuition fee accountability will be expected

• Improved functional literacy

 Steps towards Improvement in Quality of
Education

• Better Teacher Student Ratio

– Ideal Student Teacher Ratio of 1:35 can be attained by recruiting 4 teachers for class of
140 students

• Hiring local qualified talent

– Of the 198,000 para-teachers of 461 districts of the country 56.0% are graduate and
above, 48.56% regular primary school teachers are graduate and above

– The large percentage of qualified persons working as para teachers nullifies two major
arguments put forth by the proponents of the Para Teacher scheme
• Local educated youths are not available in rural areas
• Highly qualified candidates do not want to serve in these areas

• Enforcing pre-service training and in-service training

 Is Private Investment Sustainable in Primary
Education ?
• 80 % of all recognized primary schools are government run or supported

• But, if we take Kerala as an example

– Every village has more than five primary schools.
– 6,726 lower primary and 2,968 upper primary schools.
– Of the primary schools 61.07% are private aided, 2.98% are private unaided and
35.95% are government schools

• In Indian Primary Education , Availability and Acceptability have been generated

through recent schemes aimed at Universal Education
– Availability
• Access to 98% of population within one kilometer of their place of residence
• Out of school children in 6-14 years age group stands at 3-4 %
– Acceptability
• 80 % of Rural Indians ( as per PROBE Report 1999 ) believe primary education be
made compulsory for all children
 Addressing Adaptability and Affordability
• Focus on mandatory pre-service training
– Training adapted to multi-grade teaching, children’s language and cultural
backgrounds, building teacher attitudes for addressing plurality and diversity in the
classroom
– Girls, scheduled caste and tribal children often face discrimination within the classroom.
It is a challenge to address such issues through pre and in-service training program

• Provision of microfinance facility makes the concept self sustainable and further linking it
with enrollment of female students will improve female enrollment

• Charging @ 75 Rs Month per student

– Affordable for rural consumer as it helps to keep his saving at 10.74 %
– Helps to cover salary of hiring teachers at level much above the pay given to
para teachers
 Honorarium of para teachers, who are appointed in regular schools, is in the range
of Rs 1800-3000 per month
 For the para teachers working in schools, which have been set up in unserved
habitations, the honorarium is largely in the range of Rs 900-1200 per month
 Conclusion

• Long term sustainability of any idea for rural/poor India has to look into
– Accessibility
– Acceptability
– Adaptability
– Affordability

• Because the proposal addresses all the above issues , it will stand the test of time

• By freeing government from manpower issues

– the Government funds can be diverted towards building better school infrastructure
– Money wasted on hiring primary school teachers ( avg. salary 5000 for fresher ) can be
prevented specially in areas with high absenteeism

• Growing rural consumerism should be an encouraging sign for many corporate to enter the
primary education sector
– Will help to create positive brand image amongst rural consumers