The Politics and Business of the Indian Education System !

I am at a loss to understand the Indian education sector as it has evolved over the years after getting independence from the British Raj. When I was a student, I studied in private schools paying absolutely nothing as fees! I was not a person entitled for any government concessions, yet my education at the school level was absolutely free and the schools where I studied were good enough to send me to the highest level institutions of the country from a rural background.

I don't remember paying any fee that pinched my parents' income as ordinary school teachers even for my higher studies in engineering.

In those days before MMS, the country was ruled by visionaries who cared for it at least to some extent on a long term perspective. A good portion of government spending used to be for education and there were education ministers at the central and the state levels. [Not the HR ones who consider humans as business resources!]

Post MMS, education has become a goverment liability and they have come out of it without any inhibitions or remorse.

Now the old schools and colleges have either become a history or are going to become history. New five-star schools and colleges are every where. What a fantastic progress!

Almost every teenager passing the 10+2 is becoming an engineer, provided the poor parent has a few lakhs to spend as fees and another few lakhs for getting another certificate which are essentials for getting a job which will most likely fetch a salary a bit more than the interest that he had spend as fees. That too if he or she is lucky !

A good majority of the common people whom I know, like private school teachers, private company workers, etc etc get an average monthly income of less than Rs 10000/- ( Many are in the 2000-3000 range !) These people come in the employed and working category of Indian citizens!

Can these people ever think of sending their children to these engineering colleges which are now everywhere replacing the old classical colleges? The engineering college fees are much more than their monthly income.

Yes, they can send their wards to such shanty buildings called colleges or 'Mahavidyalayas' who gave admissions without any limits for giving degrees given by 'Viswavidyalayas' in wide ranging names like BA, BSc, BBA, BCOM, BCA etc where the fees could be in affordable, yet making their belts tighter.

Now one has to wonder what happens to the fees that are collected in the crores by these educational institutions. None of them pay well to the teachers. No one is ever asking them those questions. What is happening to the fees they collect?

What a great tamasha is this? What will happen to this country after a few years?

Almighty God! Have Mercy on us for we are an ignorant lot. We do not know what we are doing! 

[Reproduced from the Author's Blog at SiliconIndia]