At the peak of Anna Hazare fever last year, anybody disagreeing with his message or prescription was branded pro-corruption. Over the last few weeks, anybody expressing disappointment at the Supreme Court upholding the Right to Education (RTE) Act is being branded anti-poor or elitist. This is unfair and unnecessary: dissent is not treason.
The supporters of Anna and RTE have similar traits: impatient, intellectually certain and more interested in big ideas than operational details. While it's stupid to disagree with the need for school reforms or access inequity, I strongly disagree with RTE because it fights yesterday's war of enrolment, the government cannot provide money for its fair implementation, and its operating details declare war on education entrepreneurship. RTE is the wrong thing for the right reason.
The Supreme Court opined on the 25% reservation for poor students but the toxic parts of RTE have nothing to do with this reservation. RTE timetables the extinction of 15lakh 'unrecognised' private schools where parents pay something to avoid something that is free. The title of this article comes from the book The Beautiful Tree by James Tooley that chronicles the emergence of low-cost private schools as a reaction to dysfunctional government schools. In addition to this recognition licence raj, RTE unleashes rules that lead to higher costs, corruption and confusion. This hostile habitat will halt the explosion of education entrepreneurship and blunt competition that creates quality. To paraphrase a beheaded French queen, RTE says, "If you can't have cake, don't eat bread."
RTE will lead to higher corruption because Corruption = (Discretion + Monopoly) - Accountability. If the central government can't make up its mind if 24% or 42% of India is poor, how will a block education officer (BEO) decide which child is poor? In reality, they will auction their poverty certification to the highest bidder. RTE empowers BEOs to convert every school into a personal ATM. Not all, but most will. RTE will lead to higher school fees because the central and state governments don't have the 2 lakh crore needed for fair implementation.
Private schools will be forced to raise resources for the 25% reservation and micro-specification of salaries, qualifications and infrastructure. Delhi RTE rules specify a minimum salary of 23,000 per month for teachers and require primary teachers to have a two-year education diploma - this means that 33% of teachers have to be fired.
RTE specifies that every school must have a playground; Delhi specifies 900 sq yards but some states are considering 1,500 sq yards. The 25% children will require cross-subsidisation because state governments propose to reimburse a state average but labour and land costs vary greatly.
Karnataka's proposal to cap reimbursement at 7,000 per student per year for the 25% has already led to fee increasesfor the balance 75%. Delhi has not paid schools who were early adopters of RTE for the last few years. All this micromanaging of schools and theirfinances hits middle-class parents with higher prices for the same product.
The overcapacity in engineering and management higher education - last year, 200 engineering colleges in south India got less than 10 admissions, one lakh of the two lakh seats in UP Technical University are empty and 25% of Karnataka MBA seats were unfilled - is creating a quality race that includes free laptops, guaranteed internships, lower fees, free hostels, embedded English and soft skills.
But RTE views school qualitythrough poor proxies like playgrounds, salaries and diplomas. Does changed evaluation under RTE mean no exams? What constitutes appropriate efforts to bring back dropouts? How will teacher-student ratios be calculated? How will midday meals be handled for the 25% in privateschools? Where will these25% go after Grade 8? Will the 75% parent populated government school management committees have the power tohire and fire teachers? RTErequires admissions on a "random, rational, reasonable and just basis". Don't these words mean different things todifferent people? Why take away the right to detain or expel till Class VIII? Can we be equal and excellent?
RTE is fighting yesterday's war (enrolment) with yesterday's template (legislation). Fixing schools needs a complex ecosystem overhaul. We need sharper performance management for teachers. Seats in private schools are half of the government but locations are a tenth; underperforming, under-enrolled government schools should be fixed or put up for PPPs.
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-04-23/news/31387122_1_dysfunctional-government-schools-private-schools-reservation-for-poor-students
The supporters of Anna and RTE have similar traits: impatient, intellectually certain and more interested in big ideas than operational details. While it's stupid to disagree with the need for school reforms or access inequity, I strongly disagree with RTE because it fights yesterday's war of enrolment, the government cannot provide money for its fair implementation, and its operating details declare war on education entrepreneurship. RTE is the wrong thing for the right reason.
The Supreme Court opined on the 25% reservation for poor students but the toxic parts of RTE have nothing to do with this reservation. RTE timetables the extinction of 15lakh 'unrecognised' private schools where parents pay something to avoid something that is free. The title of this article comes from the book The Beautiful Tree by James Tooley that chronicles the emergence of low-cost private schools as a reaction to dysfunctional government schools. In addition to this recognition licence raj, RTE unleashes rules that lead to higher costs, corruption and confusion. This hostile habitat will halt the explosion of education entrepreneurship and blunt competition that creates quality. To paraphrase a beheaded French queen, RTE says, "If you can't have cake, don't eat bread."
RTE will lead to higher corruption because Corruption = (Discretion + Monopoly) - Accountability. If the central government can't make up its mind if 24% or 42% of India is poor, how will a block education officer (BEO) decide which child is poor? In reality, they will auction their poverty certification to the highest bidder. RTE empowers BEOs to convert every school into a personal ATM. Not all, but most will. RTE will lead to higher school fees because the central and state governments don't have the 2 lakh crore needed for fair implementation.
Private schools will be forced to raise resources for the 25% reservation and micro-specification of salaries, qualifications and infrastructure. Delhi RTE rules specify a minimum salary of 23,000 per month for teachers and require primary teachers to have a two-year education diploma - this means that 33% of teachers have to be fired.
RTE specifies that every school must have a playground; Delhi specifies 900 sq yards but some states are considering 1,500 sq yards. The 25% children will require cross-subsidisation because state governments propose to reimburse a state average but labour and land costs vary greatly.
Karnataka's proposal to cap reimbursement at 7,000 per student per year for the 25% has already led to fee increasesfor the balance 75%. Delhi has not paid schools who were early adopters of RTE for the last few years. All this micromanaging of schools and theirfinances hits middle-class parents with higher prices for the same product.
The overcapacity in engineering and management higher education - last year, 200 engineering colleges in south India got less than 10 admissions, one lakh of the two lakh seats in UP Technical University are empty and 25% of Karnataka MBA seats were unfilled - is creating a quality race that includes free laptops, guaranteed internships, lower fees, free hostels, embedded English and soft skills.
But RTE views school qualitythrough poor proxies like playgrounds, salaries and diplomas. Does changed evaluation under RTE mean no exams? What constitutes appropriate efforts to bring back dropouts? How will teacher-student ratios be calculated? How will midday meals be handled for the 25% in privateschools? Where will these25% go after Grade 8? Will the 75% parent populated government school management committees have the power tohire and fire teachers? RTErequires admissions on a "random, rational, reasonable and just basis". Don't these words mean different things todifferent people? Why take away the right to detain or expel till Class VIII? Can we be equal and excellent?
RTE is fighting yesterday's war (enrolment) with yesterday's template (legislation). Fixing schools needs a complex ecosystem overhaul. We need sharper performance management for teachers. Seats in private schools are half of the government but locations are a tenth; underperforming, under-enrolled government schools should be fixed or put up for PPPs.
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-04-23/news/31387122_1_dysfunctional-government-schools-private-schools-reservation-for-poor-students
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