Open Access Research Article
ROLE OF PRIVATE VS. PUBLIC EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN FULFILLING THE CONSTITUTIONAL MANDATE OF THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION IN INDIA
Published Paper
Article Details
ROLE OF PRIVATE VS. PUBLIC
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN FULFILLING THE CONSTITUTIONAL MANDATE OF THE RIGHT
TO EDUCATION IN INDIA
AUTHORED BY - PRATIKSHA RAWAT &
DR. SANTOSH KUMAR
Student, LL.M (Constitutional Law),
ICFAI Law School, Dehradun (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
The paper discusses the educational
obligations of public versus private institutions in realizing the Right to
Education enshrined under the Constitution of India. State-funded and
-maintained public schools are at the core of realizing the constitutional duty
to provide free and compulsory education to children between six and 14 years,
as established by the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act
(RTE Act) of India, 2009. Public schools remain the major mode or medium for
public policy to be realized, particularly in the marginalized regions, and are
required to implement these robust education policies as far as infrastructure,
teacher-pupil ratio and inclusive provisions in the Act specify. Besides, the
number of private schools have grown exponentially to offer educational models
from budget to elite institutions to educate children ; though these schools are
privately owned, they claim to provide better education than public schools as
they follow innovative models of teaching and have better facilities. At the
same time, the expansion of private schools involves issues related to
educational justice because private institutions are inaccessible to poor
people as they charge fees. As per the law, private institutions should reserve
25 per cent quota for poor people in their institutions; but that mandate is
seen as both followed and disdained, an indication of the larger issue in how
we reconcile a private sector providing private educational objectives with the
public goals of education. The story encapsulates the working of public and
private sectors vis-à-vis the other in education, their contributions, the challenges
they have faced, and the legal wrangles, particularly under the RTE Act, and
the role of the judiciary and PPP in educational policy and outcomes, all the
while stressing the importance of taking a step back and finding a middle path
in the pursuit of educational equity and quality.
Keywords: Right to Education, Educational
Equity, Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), Fundamental right
Introduction
Education has been made a basic right
in the constitutional provision of India. This fundamental feature of the
constitution is deep-seated in its philosophy of making every individual of
this nation and the nation as a whole to develop. To establish universal access
to education among children of the age 6-14 years, Article 21A was incorporated
in the Indian Constitution wherein it mandates the state to provide free and
compulsory education to all children of age group of six to fourteen years. Historically,
the 2002’s 86th Constitutional Amendment in India legalizing right of children
belonging to the age group of 6 to 14 years to free and compulsory education is
worth mentioning. It was the first Constitutional guarantee of the right to
education in India and was incorporated into the Constitution of India from
2002. It was also a milestone in the constitutional history of education in
India. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (known as the
RTE Act, 2009) enacted in 2009 has been provided to operationalize this
constitutional mandate to provide free and compulsory education to every child
in the age group of 6-14 in India. The Act specifically prescribed the norms
and standards of schools; pupil-teacher ratio and infrastructure that will be
required for giving effect to this right.
Paralleling this, the Supreme Court
of India, too, has rendered substantive judicial interpretations and extensions
of the right to free and compulsory education in a series of judgments. In the
case of Unni Krishnan J P v. State of Andhra Pradesh[1],
the Court stated that ‘the right to education is an integral part of the right
to life guaranteed under article 21 of the Constitution.’ It also held that the
right to education is ‘contingent upon the economic capacity and development of
the state’. The Unni Krishnan judgment is now seen as foundational in not only
acknowledging education as an ‘enabling right’ for the individual but also a
‘positive obligation’ for the state.
India’s educational space is a large
expanse of a million public (government-run) and million private institutions.
The founding and orientation of the public sector in the space is based on its
role in securing the availability, accessibility, adequacy and adaptability of
educational opportunities – the four as derived from the international
understanding of the right to education. With public schools being funded and
run by the state for implementing the educational policies of the government
within its social fabric at the ground level, they play a foundational role.[2]
On the hand, private sector of
education has been growing in number and strength particularly over past couple
of decades. There are a large variety of such educational institutes, from
cheaper budget schools to high end ones, which plays a vital role in supplement
the lack of educational facilities provided at public schools. They also
believed to provide better education compared to public schools through better
computer labs, library, good teaching techniques and many other features and
hence has gained wide spread popularity among masses.
Legal and Constitutional Framework
The right to education in India is
enshrined in the constitution as a fundamental right as per Article 21A: “The
State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of
six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine.” It
clearly states the endeavor of the Indian state to universalize elementary
education and address inequality by providing access to all children,
irrespective of their socio-economic status. The enactment of Article 21A
signifies an important step in India’s journey towards social and economic
equality.
Until its amendment in 2002, India’s
Constitution contained the right to education as a Directive Principle of State
Policy in Articles 39 and 45. A directive principle does not have any legally
binding force on the court, but they guide India’s national policies. Article
45 states: The State shall endeavor to provide, within a period of 10 years
from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education
for all children until they complete the age of 14 years. The passage of the
fundamental right to education came in the form of amending the country’s
Constitution. The switch from directive principle to fundamental right happened
only because of the constitutional change that India underwent. That in itself
is the most important ‘political pedagogy’ of India’s education policy. The
Directive Principles are not justiciable or legally enforceable by any court,
but the fundamental right section provides the much-needed judicial muscle to
make it work.[3]
Key
Provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009
The Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education Act (RTE), legislation that was enacted in 2009 in India,
must have guaranteed major reform in the landscape of education. The RTE Act
requires free and compulsory education for every child aged between six and 14
years, thus marking a milestone towards universal education. Here are some of
its provisions:
1. Right to Free and Compulsory Education
Section 3: The State shall provide
free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 6 to 14 in such a
manner, that the attendance at a school will not interfere with their vocation.
2. No Detention Policy
Section 16: No child admitted in a school
shall be held back in any class or expelled from school till the completion of
elementary education. This aims to eliminate academic stress and provide every
child with a full-term education.
3. Special Provisions for Disadvantaged
Groups
Sections 9 and 10: Special provisions
for children not admitted, or who have not completed, elementary education are
also provided Faced with the underachievement of poor and disadvantaged
children, the Act mandates that disabled children, or those from weaker
sections of society, be provided with appropriate facilities to ensure their
education up to the end of elementary education.
4. Quality of Education
Section 25: Specifies pupil-teacher
ratios (PTRs) to be maintained in schools.
Section 29: Emphasises the
curriculum, keeping in mind the child’s overall development and the
child-centred ethos which enables learning through activity, discovery and
exploration.
5. Prohibition of Physical Punishment
and Mental Harassment
Section 17: States that no child
shall be subjected to physical punishment or mental harassment. States that the
child’s mental and physical health, as well as his/her academic well-being, are
the educational objective.
6. Prohibition of Capitation Fees
Section 13: Restricts the schools
from raising any capitation fee both before and after admission. Free education
proves to be ineffective if the parents are burdened by the financial
implications of access.
7. 25% Reservation for Economically
Weaker Sections (EWS)
Section 12(1)(c): Mandates that 25% of
seats at the entry-level are provided to weaker sections and deprived groups
children of the neighborhood for free education.
8. School Infrastructure
Section 19: Sets statutory norms and
standards for school buildings as well as school culture, including space for
play and recreation, quantity of clean water for drinking, teacher student
ratio, etc.
9. Teacher Eligibility and Training
Section 23: Defines standards for
hiring properly prepared teachers and describes the qualifications of teachers
and norms for teacher training.
10. Monitoring and Implementation
Section 31: Sets up the National
Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and State Commissions that
will hold all schools, both public and private, accountable to the RTE
provisions.[4]
Role of the Preamble in Guiding
Education Policies
The Preamble to the Indian
Constitution enunciates the philosophy of the Constitution, using human values
such as justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity as its guiding principles.
The Preamble of the Constitution of India lays down the principles of
educational policy in the country. It is the constitutional guide to education.
It gives a direction to the educational values and philosophy of India by visualizing
a society and society’s unity based on its economic, social and political
justice emanating from educational equity. The social, economic and political
justice enshrined in the Preamble makes education accessible to all.
This obligation is best understood in
the Preamble’s focus on dignity or the worth of the individual. The Preamble
also implicitly reveals how education might help fulfil the Preamble’s vision
of enhanced individual functioning. Finally, the socialist and secular
character of the state conceived under the Preamble argues for education
policies that are secular and socially inclusive in keeping with its spirit.
This argument comes through a series of Supreme Court rulings reaffirming that
education is fundamental for the realization of other rights under the
Constitution. These include the right to freedom of speech and expression under
Article 19 and the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21.
1.2 Role of Public Educational Institutions
The origins of modern public
education can be found in the colonial era, when several public institutions
were set up in 19th-century India to teach English education along the lines
recommended by Lord Macaulay. In independent India, there was a growing emphasis
on ‘universalizing’ education, and the launch of several ambitious policy
reforms since and most notably the National Policy on Education (NPE) of 1968,
which advocated free and compulsory education for children up to the age of 14
as envisaged in the Constitution of India.
Public schools in India have seen
multiple attempts to increase their reach and improve quality over the last
three decades. The District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) — launched in
the 1990s — and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) — launched in the early 2000s —
were path-breaking attempts to improve infrastructure in public schools and
increase children’s enrolment. The RTE Act of 2009 finally recognized the role
of public schools in their stated objective of providing free and compulsory
education to all children aged six to fourteen years.
Analysis of Government Funding, Policy Support, and Infrastructure
Besides being financed by fees,
public (educational) institutions are dependent on government funding and
policy support. The central and state governments fund education largely
through the Union and State Budgets, supplemented by schemes like the SSA,
Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), and the more recent Samagra Shiksha
Abhiyan. These schemes are meant not only to provide monetary support but also
to cater to specialized needs such as teacher training, educational technology
and inclusive education for children with special needs.
Among them, special focus has been
laid on public schools to improve the existing infrastructure as a whole. Many
policy areas are about providing adequate physical infrastructure – such as
classrooms, laboratories, libraries, toilets, etc – which is imperative for
creating an environment to learn. The RTE Act, for instance, stipulates
guidelines for the infrastructure of the school to provide children with an
ambience to learn.
Case Studies of Successful Public-School Initiatives
Many public-school programmes across
states and the country are a model for it. Delhi has taken led the way on
education reforms to raise the bar of government school education, by emphasizing
on improving the quality of infrastructure and curriculum. Despite the
challenges, multiple innovations such as the Happiness Curriculum, the
Entrepreneurship Mindset Curriculum, large scale physical infrastructure
upgrades are a step in the right direction in government school education.
Another example is ‘Operation
Blackboard’, a government initiative launched in 1987, to mobilize human and
physical resources to improve access and quality of basic education, especially
at the primary level, across the country. A number of evaluations showed that
this programme led to significant improvements in the ratio of teachers to
pupils and the quality of delivery of education in rural areas.[5]
Fig1. India: Literacy Rate from 1981 to
2022, by Gender[6]
The line graph represents the
percentage of literacy of India from 1981 to 2022. Also, the data can be
divided by gender. Below is an instruction that describes a task, paired with
an input that provides further context. Write a response that appropriately
completes the request. Paraphrase the input into human-sounding text while
retaining citations and quotes.
From 1981 to 2022, although the
literacy attained by the human's population in India, of female and male has a
slightly increase, the male's percentage is higher than women.
In detail, from 1981 to 2022, the
percentage of India's human's literacy in 1981 was on 50 percent and in 2001
and 2011 was increased on 62 percent and 76 percent. However, the rate of
attainment was little faster in 2022 and only slightly over 83 percent. Note,
the percentage of India's males in 1981 to 2022. Also, this figure was almost
be increased in 2001 and 2011 and it also be increased on 2022.
Moreover, the percentage of India's
human's female's literacy for example in 1981 and 2011 was almost be increased
however in 2022 was slightly over 2011.
Overall literacy in 1981 was 40.76% ,
for ?
Men: 54.84%
Women :25.68%
The total literacy was 48.22% in
1991. For men is was 61.64% and for women is 33.73%.
It has gone up further by 2001, to
61.01%. Overall, 73.41 per cent literacy for males. women 47.84 per cent
literacy has been improved.
In the 2006, all-together literacy
rate was 62.75%. The literacy rate of men in this year was 75.19%. the literacy
rate of women is 50.82%.
We can see that in 2011 adult
literacy rate. Total literacy rate is 69.3% and among male it is 79.28%, female
it is 59.28%.
Furthermore, twelfth one of all is
that in 2022, the overall literacy rate become 83.45 per cent. Among male
population, the percentage of literacy rate is 89.1 per cent. However, note
that, the literacy rate has improved significantly for female population too
which is 76.32 per cent.
For all, men, and women literacy rate
each point is represented by a grey bar, a blue bar, and a red bar
respectively. An asterisk (1) next to the 2011 year indicates that the 2011
data may be an estimate or under a certain condition outlined what is not
information that is provided with the image. The graph shows the trend of
literacy rate to improve from 1995 to 2015 with positive progress with men and
women in India and the gender gap of literacy appears to be closing.[7]
Challenges Faced by Public Schools
By these metrics, India’s public
schools have seen some impressive victories, despite these myriad challenges.
Funding, although greatly improved, still remains a major issue for most public
schools, especially for those in rural and poor areas, where allocation of
funds and disbursement of funds vary significantly. Learning outcomes are still
way behind private schools in the majority of states, with other issues such as
teacher absenteeism, high pupil-to-teacher ratios, and lack of teacher training
continuing to create problems for most public schools.
Qualities such as teacher
availability and quality are contended with, including shortages in
well-prepared teachers and inadequate qualification of many in-service teachers
to meet the heterogeneous and complex needs of the class. While there are national-level
initiatives, such as the National Teacher Education Policy, the implementation
across India’s massive and diverse landscape is uneven.[8]
Role of Private Educational Institutions
Private educational institutions are
the driving force behind different kinds of education that enable innovation
and expand the educational horizon.
Growth of Private Schools in India's Educational Sector
The percentage of children who attend
private schools in India every day has been rising by leaps and bounds since
the last few decades. There are many reasons behind this tremendous growth of
private schools in India. One reason could be the presence of early
shortcomings in public education systems, ranging from over-crowded classrooms
to under-funding and inadequate infrastructure, which renders an educational
quality that tends to push parents into exploring private educational
opportunities to give their children a comparatively better and effective
education.[9]
According to a report by National
University of Educational Planning and Administration, it is found that, nearly
the same percentage of students here have been going to private schools every
year, which clearly shows that a large section of education has been privatized.
Private schools in India are like Swatch
watches – the same brand but highly variable in terms of provision, pricing,
and positioning. From the budget private school catering to
resource-constrained families seeking ‘value for money’ – to provide better
educational opportunities than that guaranteed by a public mission school – to
elite schools with international curricula and expensive state-of-the-art
facilities, private education in India is diverse. As a recent OUP blog
illustrated, this diversity has contributed to greater segmentation and
stratification of education, such that the kind of education that a child
receives in school increasingly depends on their family’s economic status.[10]
Analysis of Contributions to Educational Standards and Innovations
Private schools have been the innovative
trendsetters in Indian educational activities. Most of the private school
implement modern educational methods, incorporate technology in the learning
process, and provide a wider scope of extracurricular activity than their
public counterparts. For example, smart classes, digital library and language
lab are quite common in private schools. They had led to be a benchmark which
is required to be follow in the public schools. Private schools play an
indirect role in improving the standards of education in the public schools.
In addition, private schools are more
able to provide curricula that are not necessarily tied to the normative state
board curricula. Students can, for instance, gain knowledge through
international baccalaureate (IB) or Cambridge International Examinations (CIE),
which are reputed for their rigor and global orientation, which in turn helps
Indian students to compete at the international level. Thus, they introduce
pedagogical diversity into the Indian system.
Economic Implications of Private Education (Fees, Accessibility)
On one hand, private schools have
raised education standards and compete with public schools. While others think
private schools has some disadvantage, economical and accessibility.
Firstly, although private school would
raise spheres of education it charges a huge price in terms of wealth. Only
middle dan high incomers can only afford to support their children schooling in
elite school. That means the polarity of education would let nonpaying people
round clan only use public school instead.
To end spheroid on this topic, I
would like to say that would the governments give some subsidies to service the
public education, and even pay a part of fees for the limited families. The
polarity may fade away.
There are also the wider economic
implications of the fees. The expense of purchasing a uniform, textbooks,
transport and extra curriculum or leisure activities can add up. For that
reason, although private schools offer a better standard of education, they
also contribute to worsening social class inequality in education.[11]
Legal Challenges and Controversies Surrounding Private Institutions
Private schools are also sites of
litigation and actions around implementation of the RTE Act. A key feature of
the Act is that all private schools must make 25 per cent of their entry-level
seats (free of charge) available to children from disadvantaged groups and from
EWS in order to introduce greater social and economic diversity in private
schools. Implementation of this provision has been highly contested; from
financial viability to autonomy, many private schools have resisted the
provision.
Also, private schools constantly face
questions from or scrutiny by the authorities over their lack of compliance
under the RTE Act, such as with respect to capitation fees or on admission
procedure or teacher qualifications. Differences in the nature of management
and governance structures is a direct outcome of private schools not being
under a single statutory umbrella.
Comparative Analysis
In conducting a comparative analysis,
it is essential to scrutinize and evaluate multiple entities, phenomena, or
variables to discern patterns, differences, and similarities.
Effectiveness in Delivering Quality Education
It is often argued that public schools
do not provide good education compared to the private schools, while others
argue that private schools do not always provide a better-quality education.
This essay will look at the argument in detail then give my own insights.
On one hand, there are many instances
in which studies and results show that private schools, on average, perform
better than public schools in terms of the percentage of students entering
universities or passing standardized examinations. This can be mainly due to
the fact that private schools excel over public schools in resources such as
better facilities, lower teacher to student ratio, as well as the fact that
teachers do not miss as many days as public-school teachers. What is more, as
private schools have more autonomy than their public counterparts, private
schools have more room for innovation when it comes to designing the syllabus,
managing teaching methods and so forth.
The picture suddenly reverses though
when we consider the fact that moral values that are often learnt and
inculcated in public (as compared to private) institutions could be more
effective in the future.[12]
But public schools continue to serve
society as the platform providing a minimum of education. This is particularly
so in rural areas and other pockets of under-served regions where private
schools, if they exist at all, are often unwilling or unable to operate. By no
means do they have to be poor cousin to private schools. Public schools can be
good, given the requisite government policy and funding supports. The quality
of public schools is now being measured and promoted using tools such as the
annual National Achievement Survey (NAS) and other assessment tools. And by a
wide margin, they’re demonstrating that when a limited number of carefully
targeted interventions are put in place, educational outcomes improve at a
significant scale.
Accessibility and Inclusivity: Socio-economic Impacts on Student
Demographics
Another major issue in Indian
education is accessibility and inclusivity. Higher-quality education is
typically provided by private schools, but tuition fees are often extremely
high, rendering them inaccessible to the vast majority of low-income families,
who are thus effectively barred from accessing higher-quality education.
Scholarships and fee concessions are sometimes offered by these private
schools, but they do not always cover the need.
By contrast, public schools are more
democratic with free education provided by law under the RTE Act. Education
being free of cost allows for more vulnerable children to attend school.
However, the quality of education and resources available to them in government
schools can vary greatly depending on the region of residence – urban schools
tending to have better resources than rural schools facing large sets of
challenges.[13]
Compliance with Educational Rights as Per Constitutional Mandates
Public and private schools are both
tied to the constitutional mandate to educate citizens; and both have to
contend with the same legal Statute to make that a reality. The differences are
in the ways that they are held accountable and compliant. Public schools
directly answer to the guidelines determined in the RTE Act and are routinely
audited on the structures it mandates, such as minimum infrastructure norms,
teacher-student ratios and the mandated inclusion of disadvantaged children.
Although private schools also have to comply with the RTE Act, and the
reservation requirements in particular, the mandated 25 per cent quotas for the
children of the disadvantaged are often difficult to implement – either because
of the financial bottom-line, or to perpetuate a certain exclusivity.
The legal issues are no less serious
when it comes to the responsibility of private schools. Here too, the Supreme
Court of India has repeatedly enforced the duty of schools (not just the state)
to recognize education as a fundamental right and not only as an exercise of
certain entitlements. Once recognized as a fundamental right, education is seen
as a tool to access other constitutional mandates such as the right to equality
and freedom (Unni Krishnan, J.P. v. State of Andhra Pradesh[14]).
In other words, it falls upon all schools to honour constitutional mandates not
just in spirit but also in letter.
Public-Private Partnerships and Their Role in Fulfilling Educational
Objectives
One specific answer to these problems
is public-private partnerships (PPPs). PPPs are the joint funding, building and
management of educational facilities by a government body and a private organisation.
It is presumed that they could bring out the best of both these sectors – the
scale, mandate and reach of the public sector, and the resources, management
efficiency and quality of the private sector.
Some examples of successful PPP
models in education include private organisations managing government-aided
schools, or private companies adopting government schools for updating the
infrastructure and curriculum. The results across states have been encouraging
as it combines the objectives of public sector education (free/affordable) with
the efficiencies of the private sector.[15]
Judicial Perspectives
Starting with the very narrow view of
education as schooling, the Supreme Court of India has dynamically interpreted
the right to education in ways that have direct consequences on both the
private and the public-school systems. Many of the judgments have reiterated
the role of the state in protecting and promoting the right to education so
that it remains truly meaningful.
Unni Krishnan, J.P. v. State of Andhra
Pradesh[16]: Seminal decision of the Supreme
Court to recognize the right to education and characterize it as an essential
facilitator of the right to life which is guaranteed under Article 21 of the
Indian Constitution. Court directed that it was the mandate of the state to
provide facilities of education up to the highest level at education facilities
established thereby or otherwise. It led to the latter insertion in the
Constitution of an explicit provision under Article 21A of Indian Constitution
to amend it.
T M A Pai Foundation v. State of
Karnataka[17]: This verdict impacted the private
education sector greatly, for the judges ruled that the state cannot be allowed
to regulate private education in a way that potentially erodes the autonomy of
those institutions. They upheld the right of private educational institutions
to manage themselves, if they operate in a non-discriminatory manner and on a
basis of merit.
Pradeep Jain v. Union of India[18]: This case pertains to admissions in
medical colleges. It reminds us of the importance of giving equal opportunity
in education to people coming from different regions of the country. More
broadly, it emphasises the principle that people should have access to
educational institutions regardless of their domicile status, which in turn
helps shape the policy in both the private and the public sector.
Society for Unaided Private Schools
of Rajasthan v. Union of India[19]: The highest court of the country
maintained the constitutional validity of the Right to Education Act, 2009, and
its clause making private educational institutions earmark at least 25 per cent
of entry-level seats for children from weaker sections and other disadvantaged
sections of society. It emphasized the intermediary facilitative role that
private institutions can play in the state’s endeavor to provide universal
access to education.
Courts have gone even further by
extending the right to education as not only the right to be in school, but to
an education that equates to a meaningful life opportunity to shape one’s
personality, develop one’s talents, and exercise one’s mental and physical
abilities to the fullest extent. Courts have maintained that education is not
just a matter of imparting knowledge, but of instilling an ethos of respect for
human rights, equality and building the capacity for responsible life in a free
society.
And for public schools, the political
stakes are clear: public schools are the primary institutions through which
courts have frequently stepped in to ensure that public schools are
sufficiently resourced to achieve not only access to but to quality education:
infrastructure, teachers, rights to education that are justiciable and
enforceable.
As for private schools, judicial
interpretations have made clear that their freedom to operate does not
translate into the freedom to operate without any accountability at all –
rather, their private ?ow lives embedded in the state’s wider duty in relation
to education. This attaches to them the responsibility of conforming to the state’s
wider educational framework, including the present understanding of this
framework embodied by national education policy, such as the RTE Act
provisions, and flowing through to the socio-political ethical aim encapsulated
in the recently enacted law – the right to an education that enables every
section of the population to reap the bene?ts that education can offer.
Policy Analysis and Suggestions
Policy analysis and suggestions can
serve an important role in assessing existing policies, identifying their
strengths and weaknesses, and making suggestions on how to improve them or
replace them with new policies to address complex problems facing society.
Critique of Current Educational Policies Affecting Private and Public
Schools
India’s education policy, still
formally geared towards universal access and improved outcomes in both private
and public sectors, faces many challenges including tight budgets and tie-ups
in labor. Policy implementation is uneven with persistent disparities across
the states and regions.
Though policies designed to enhance
access and quality in public schools such as the RTE Act have had significant
effects, implementation gaps remain. For instance, many public schools continue
to face issues of adequate funding, teacher training and infrastructure,
especially in rural areas; insufficient teacher training remains a chronic
challenge; public funding is blocked for many years; and the policy of no
detention up to Class eighth or so, enacted to reduce the incidence of
dropouts, has resulted in academic laxity and poor learning outcomes because
there is no institutional incentive to ensure that learning is taking place.
This system has, in many ways, been
rightly criticized for being overly permissive or overly onerous for private
schools. While elite private schools thrive under low levels of control, many budgets
private schools find themselves in a regulatory vacuum, where normative
compliance varies, and quality suffers. The most controversial policies are
ones that stipulate reservation of seats for poor and disadvantaged children,
which private schools resist out of fear of financial reimbursement and
autonomy.
Suggestions for Policy Reforms to Bridge Gaps in Education Quality and
Accessibility
To address these challenges, a
comprehensive approach to reforming educational policies is needed:
·
Greater
oversight and accountability: better oversight of private schools, both public
and private, can ensure adherence to their stated educational standards. This
includes regular monitoring and evaluation by inspecting officers and ensuring
enforcement of existing laws and regulations.
·
Equitable
Funding Model: This seems like a more equitable funding model: School systems
should devise a mechanism to provide all public schools, especially ones that
serve the poor, with sufficient resources to comply and provide education under
the RTE quota. Such a mechanism could include a subsidy to private schools that
must admit children under the RTE quota as an incentive to encourage
compliance.
·
Professional
Development of Teachers: Policies for teacher professional development can
benefit both private and public sectors, and can include development of
continuous training, assessment techniques, incentives and awards that
encourage professional growth. Holding teacher education and training to the
changing needs of educational demands can improve the effectiveness of teacher
performance.
·
Innovation
and Technology Integration– The government should develop policies that favor
innovative design and technology integration in teaching and learning. The
government can provide grants and rewards for schools that actively embrace
digital education and other innovation practices. This will help to enhance the
teaching and learning processes and keep the education system in line with
current trends.
·
Building
on the strengths of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs): PPP models that
demonstrate success in achieving scale should be scaled up (e.g., using private
sector capacity for management efficiency and innovation, and public resources
for inclusivity and broad reach).
Potential for Future Public-Private Collaborations to
Enhance Educational Outcomes
This opens up a bright potential for
public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the education sector in India. There is a
major potential for transformational changes if the two different resources,
expertise, strengths and capacities of public and private sectors are pooled
and leveraged through PPPs. For example, the private sector can contribute its
expertise in areas such as curriculum preparation, teacher training and
infrastructure development, while the public sector can ensure that the
benefits of such enhancements are extended to a wider section of the rural
population.
Other examples include school
adoption programmes, in which private companies enhance the infrastructure and
management of public schools, with positive results in some circumstances; as
well as technology solutions provided by private companies that can be overlaid
onto public schools.
Conclusion
So, the focus on the role of diverse
public and private institutes, variously state- or market-led, that in India
represent not one pillar but two pillars, each with equal primary importance
but for their equally specific challenges in securing and implementing a
constitutional right. Public institutions, in the largest sections of school
education, and often having to contend with inadequate budgetary allocations
and crumbling infrastructure, and also for the most part contracting cadres of
underqualified teachers, could be the backbone for securing basic, broad-based
access. At the same time, however, public schools have a crucial role to play
in the larger vision of securing the constitutional purpose of education as a
basic right for being guaranteed to children of all socio-economic backgrounds
and not just to the privileged few. These directly benefit from government
support and oversight.
Private schools can contribute
towards the formation of standards by which to structure the educational
environment, and can undertake pedagogic innovation. At the same time, the
educable – and usually middle- to high-income – families that these schools
service, can foster ineducable elitism, and jeopardize educational equity. The
requirement that schools with 75 per cent or more of their students from the
middle- or high-income group reserve 25 per cent of their places for
disadvantaged classes aims to address this, but is nevertheless an attempt to
balance out competing challenges of financial viability and institutional
autonomy.
Through its rulings, the judiciary
has continued to emphasise the constitutional status and importance of
education as a fundamental entitlement for all, while pushing both sectors
towards greater compliance with constitutional mandates. Decisions have
clarified the roles and responsibilities of private entities in advancing the
public interest and have affirmed that education should advance social justice
and equality.
PPPs represent an attractive
alternative, leveraging the efficiency of the private sector to expand and
improve public education. The success of numerous PPP examples reveals an
important lesson – strategic alliances can mitigate structural weaknesses and
improve quality.
Finally, policy makers of the future
should focus on boosting the complementarity between public and private
sectors. Improving accountability mechanisms, levelling the funding
opportunities and the professional training of teachers would help close the
quality gap. Embracing technological innovation and openness to new pedagogical
approaches could further raise the quality and the reach of education.
To summaries, realizing the
constitutional objective of the right to education in India also calls for an
integrated strategy that reinforces public institutions, curtails inclusive
private engagement and, crucially, robust judicial oversight. Closing
educational divides can be embedded not only through legal frameworks, but also
with a concomitant gain of social and economic justice through education.
[1]AIR 1993 SC 2178.
[2]WatimongbaLongkumer&MebarisukLangstieh,
“Right to Education Act”: Examining Elementary Schools of Tuensang District,
Nagaland, Northeast India, 50 Asian
Journal of Education and Social Studies 247 (2024).
[3]
India Joint Report on India -Submission by National Coalition for Education and
World Vision India for Universal Periodic Review, (2012),
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/lib-docs/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/session13/IN/JS6_UPR_IND_S13_2012_JointSubmission6_E.pdf.
[4]
Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (Right to
Education Act; 2012),
https://vikaspedia.in/education/policies-and-schemes/right-to-education/right-of-children-to-free-and-compulsory-education-act-2009-right-to-education-act
(last visited Apr 27, 2024).
[5]Niels P.
Rygaard et al., Children Around the World: The Future of Our Earth (2024), https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/Children_Around_the_World/lWABEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=right+to+education+india&pg=PA187&printsec=frontcover
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[6]Statista,
India: Literacy rate from 1981 to 2022, by gender, Statista (2023), https://www.statista.com/statistics/271335/literacy-rate-in-india/.
[8]Vishnu S.
Warrier, Right to Education in India: Challenges and Opportunities, The
Lex-Warrier: Online Law Journal (2023),
https://lex-warrier.in/right-to-education-in-india-challenges-and-opportunities.html.
[9]Arun Maity, Innovation in the Changing Trends
in Education (2024). RED’SHINE PUBLICATION PVT. LTD, DOI: 10.25215/1387719378,
ISBN 978-1-387-71937-2.
[10]Overview
of the Indian Education Industry, (2015), https://www.careratings.com/upload/NewsFiles/Studies/Overview%20of%20the%20Indian%20Education%20Industry%20June%202018.pdf
(last visited Apr 27, 2024).
[11]Private
vs. Public Education & impact on student outcomes | Education for All in
India, (2023), https://educationforallinindia.com/private-vs-public-education-impact-on-student-outcomes/
(last visited Apr 27, 2024).
[12]National
Center for Education Statistics, Public and Private Schools: How Do They
Differ?,, https://nces.ed.gov/pubs97/97983.pdf.
[14]AIR 1993 SC 2178.
[15]Public-Private
Partnerships (PPP) in Education: A Sensible Solution Towards Empowering India’s
Future, www.linkedin.com,
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/public-private-partnerships-ppp-education-sensible-solution
(last visited Apr 27, 2024).
[16]Ibid.
[17]
(1994) 2 SCC 195.
[18]
(1984) 3 SCC 654.
[19]
(2012) 6 SCC 1.
Article Information
ROLE OF PRIVATE VS. PUBLIC EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN FULFILLING THE CONSTITUTIONAL MANDATE OF THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION IN INDIA
Authors: PRATIKSHA RAWAT, DR. SANTOSH KUMAR
- Journal IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Published 2024/05/06
- Issue 7
About Journal
International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis
- Abbreviation IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
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