Education in India

School Choice National Conference 2009 - Session 1 Summary

I attended the School Choice National Conference 2009 in Delhi on December 16th. Here is a summary based on my notes.

Private Schools and the Poor: Implementing the 25% in Section 12 of RTE (Right to Education Act 2009) was the focus of the first session. Provided below is a (paraphrased) summary of what each speaker had to say.

Sam Carlson, Lead Education Specialist for the World Bank in India, spoke about the RTE Bill and its implications. A copy of Sam Carlson's presentation is available at the conference web site.

• The RTE Bill was passed by Parliament in August 2009, but has not yet been published in the Gazette. It will come into effect only after being published in the Gazette. The RTE Act Rules are being drafted and only after they are ready can it be published. The target date for that seems to be a rolling 3-4 months at any time, whenever you talk to anyone in the Ministry.
• The RTE Bill is the first legislation in the world that puts the responsibility of providing elementary education and ensuring enrollment, attendance and completion on the Government. It is the parents' responsibility to send the children to schools in tje U.S. ad other countries. More importantly, this is a justiciable legislation, which means the Government can be taken to court if it does not ensure education is provided to all children.
• If the RTE ACT is fully implemented (a big IF), it will be the largest education sector Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the world.
• Private Unaided schools will have to admit in Class I, a minimum of 25% of their capacity, students from disadvantaged sections with the Government compensating the schools for the 25%. It remains to be seen how the leading private unaided schools will deal with providing the 25% seats to disadvantaged children.
• The implementation of the RTE bill will result in a huge operational research opportunity in terms of the process for selecting the children who will be admitted in each school under the 25% quota, through a randomised lottery.
• Interestingly, the responsibility of monitoring the implementation of the RTE Act is not with the Government, but has been assigned to the National Council for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) - an autonomous body set up in March 2007. The NCPCR doesn't have much experience in monitoring something on the scale of the implementation of the RTE Act and they will need to learn as they go along.
• There are a lot of regulations imposed on schools by the RTE Act. Schools will have to adhere to specified student-teacher ratios, provide a minimum level of infrastructure, a minimum number of working hours per week and working days per year and so on. All unrecognised private schools must obtain recognition once the Act comes into effect to continue to function after the Act comes into force. If schools don't obtain recognition, they will have to pay a fine of Rs. 1 lakh plus Rs. 10,000 per day. But at the end of it all, one can't legislate teacher effort!
• The RTE legislation is very progressive, but the devil is in the details and we need to wait for the rules for implementation that are being drafted.
• The private sector has a crucial role to play. Public Private Parternships can leverage the incentive-based drive of the private sector to further public policy objectives (educational outcomes in the case of the RTE).
• In the context of the RTE, there are PPP opportunities in a wide range of areas:
  • School Facility Services - building and operating schools
  • Non-educational support services - catering, technology etc.
  • Educational services - curricular, content, teaching/learning aids etc.
  • Teacher training
  • Management contracts for Government schools
  • Educational services for the state-funded students (25% under RTE) in private schools
• The World Bank has allocated US$ 300,000 for monitoring and evaluation of the RTE Act and to help the NCPCR and MHRD in implementing the RTE Act.

Amit Kaushik, a former Director in MHRD who was instrumental in drafting the RTE Bill and the development and implementation of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and currently CEO of Shri Educare Limited (part of the SRF group), spoke on the RTE Bill and its challenges. A copy of Amit Kaushik's presentation is available at the conference web site.

• At the time of the Constituent Assembly debates, there was opposition to universal adult franchise since most people were illiterate. Article 45 was introduced as a compromise: "The State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years." It was the only Directive Principle of State Policy that had a specified time frame for implementation.
• The RTE Bill was passed in 2009. Within three years from the date of publishing of the RTE bill in the Gazette, the government will have to ensure that enough schools are established in each neighbourhood to provide education to all. There are various responsibilities for the Central Government, the local governments (maintain records of children upto the age of 14 years, ensure admission of children with migrant families, monitor functioning of schools within their jurisdiction) and the schools (at least 25% of seats).
• Likely challenges
  • Definition of neighbourhood and identification of "disadvantaged groups" and "weaker sections".
  • Monitoring utilisation of the 25% quota in private schools
  • Integrating disadvantaged children in upper-end private schools
  • Expenses over and above tuition fees
  • Preparing teachers to deal with diverse children
  • Status of unrecognised private schools
  • Ensuring quality and learning outcomes
• It is unclear if the Private Schools can do a better job than State-run Schools. To quote a study by Educational Initiatives comparing Private and State-run schools,

  "...I did find that any lead that private schools show in their learning outcomes over government schools can be completely explained away by...: (1) students socio-economic background, (2) students initial levels, (3) rote/procedural nature of learning tested. In other words, if you control for factor 1, look for improvements between say grade 3 and grade 7 (to nullify any initial advantage) and the test is not rote/testing procedural knowledge only, I do not believe private schools show any advantage over government schools."

  ASER 2009 also points to the same thing.
• About 7%-9% of schools in the country (around 75,000 schools) are private unaided schools, but they account for 20%-30% of enrollment in the country.
• Everywhere else in the world, universal elementary education has been achived only through government schools. So the Government needs to improve its schools rather than letting private schools do more.
• PPP in education is possible, but it must be done under the overall supervision of the Government.
• The evidence on the effectiveness of the voucher mode is mixed.

Amit Kaushik mentioned that he and Parth Shah of the Centre for Civil Society (had differed publicly in the past on the role of public and private schools in ensuring education for all) and was happy that Parth Shah (the organiser of the conference) had invited him to the conference despite their disagreements.

I later asked Sridhar Rajagopalan, the CEO of Educational Initiatives (who was also present at the conference) about his studies on comparing the quality effect of private and public schools that Amit Kaushik referred to during his talk. Sridhar said that the studies were still going on and are not yet as conclusive as it seemed from Amit's presentation and we should wait before arriving at any conclusion.

Karthik Muralidharan, Assistant Professor in the economics department at the University of California, San Diego, spoke on the issue of the State vs the Market in the delivery of education and its implications for the RTE Bill. A copy of Karthik Muralidharan's presentation is available at the conference web site.

• The returns to education come from the quality of education and not the quantity or the number of years of schooling.
• Teacher accountability is a key issue. About 90% of spending goes to teachers' salaries and studies have shown that more spending has least effectiveness in the poorest places. The salary levels have nothing to do with reducing teacher absenteeism. In fact teachers are more likely to be absent with higher salaries. Accountability is a big issue, especially when teachers can't be fired for absenteeism.
• 50% of children in urban India go to private schools. There are more children in private schools in India than in Chile which has a national state-funded voucher program. These private schools are low fee "budget" private schools and not the fancy exclusive private schools. While Teacher salaries in these schools are low, the pupil teacher ratio is higher since these schools hire more teachers and are more responsive and accountable to parents. Students from these schools do better than students from state schools.
• The jury is out on the value added by a private school when compared to a government school. Children in private schools are better at the Class III-IV level, since they have usually had two extra years in Kindergarten, when compared to children in government schools who join directly in Class I.
• But one should look not just at the difference in quality between private and public schools, but also at the cost-effectivness. whether the same or better results have been achieved at lower costs in private schools or in government schools.
• The salary levels of teachers in rural public schools can be as high as 5-10 times that of the salaries of teachers in rural private schools. The highest salaries in rural private schools are less than the lowest salaries in the rural public schools.
• The demand for private schools is driven by the failure of public schools and not by the the demand by the elite.
• The reason for this lies in the Exit vs Voice dilemma. The market are held accountable by Exit whereas the State can be held accountable only by Voice. Schools combine elements of Exit (can move from state-run schools to private schools) and Voice (community control and collective action).
• The credibility of the Exit option impacts the Voice option. Improving the Exit option strengthens the Voice option. The question before us is - should we strengthen Exit, or Voice, or both?
• Currently, the richer parents have the option of Exit to a better school, but the poorer parents don't have that option. Poorer parents are also the ones with the least political Voice and so they are doubly handicapped in terms of both Exit as well as Voice to improve the quality of public schools. The Parent Teacher Associations (PTA) don't seem to have an effect on reducing teacher absence in public schools. This could also be a collective action problem. Voice is further weakened in the face of the Exit of the Elite from public schools.
• This issue of the poor not having Voice or Exit options can be solved by putting purchasing power behind the poor and then letting the markets respond to the demand. This would provide the poor with both Exit and Voice options. This can be implemented through Vouchers given to parents.
• Reservations of 25% or more of seats in schools (through the RTE) could be prone to capture by certain sections of society, whereas vouchers for all will benefit the entire community.
• There are concerns about vouchers, which need to be discussed and addressed. Will private schools self-select and continue to remain elite by excluding disadvantaged children even if they have vouchers? Can illiterate parents make informed choices on which schools to go to? Could there be a balkanisation along religious/ethnic lines? Will we in effect be giving up on the public system and letting the government abdicate its responsibility of educating all children?
• The case for vouchers shouldn't be looked at as a choice of public vs private, but as a means of increasing competition to improve both public and private schools and ensuring equity and social justice by providing the disadvantaged with choices that today are available only to the well-off.
• Many studies are required on the efficacy of voucher programs, the response of private schools etc.. and the 25% provision in the RTE Act will provide an opportunity for many such studies. A study is currently being conducted in collaboration with the Azim Premji Foundation in Andhra Pradesh.

Here's a link to Karthik Muralidharan's publications describing his studies on education in the Indian context.

Anders Hultin was a former political adviser to the Swedish Ministry of Schools from 1991-1994. In 1999, he co-founded the private school chain, Kunskapsskolan and was Chief Executive of this company for eight years during which time the company became the largest provider of secondary education in Scandinavia operating thirty-two schools with more than 10,000 students. He is currently CEO of GEMS Education UK. He spoke on the Swedish experience with vouchers. A copy of Anders Hultin's presentation is available at the conference web site.

• Sweden is today a country with a population of 9 million and 4000 schools. There were three milestones in education in Sweden
  • The first was in the mid 1800s - compulsory state-funded elementary education was provided for all
  • The next was in the mid 1900s - compulsory state-funded education was extended to the secondary level.
  • The last was in 1992 - the introduction of the voucher model
• The introduction of the voucher model was part of the manifesto of the winning political party and was largely regarded as symbolic. But the government was surprised by the very high number of applications to start new private schools, at a time when 99% of all schools were State schools. Anyone who met certain criteria was given the license to run private schools.
• The State agreed to pay the same money to private schools that they were paying to the State schools. This amounted to about US$ 7,500 per year. No voucher top-up was allowed - (i.e) private schools were not allowed to collect any more money from the students directly. The private schools had to compete with State schools with equal resources.
• From 80 private schools in 1992, there are over 1,100 private schools in Sweden today.
• This provides parents a choice forces school operators to respond to the competition and perform better and serve the needs of the parents and society.
• There is freedom for private school operators, but with regulation. Information on school operator performance should go to parents. Access to good information can solve the problem of information asymmetry.
• While a lot is said about Sweden's voucher model, there is one important point - 75% of all private schools in Sweden are for-profit schools. Without the profit-element there would not have been so many private schools. Most of them would have remained small and largely been religiously oriented. The voucher model would not have existed without the acceptance of for-profit schools.
• Take the Carlsson School in Stockholm, fore example. It is a very good private school run by a non-profit charitable trust for over a 100 years. They have a seven year waiting list to get in to the school - you even need to time the birth date of your child correctly and apply on the date of birth! The longer the waiting list, the more reputed the school. Since the school is run by a non-profit trust, there is no incentive for them to set up any more schools. If they had a profit incentive, they would have certainly been striving for growth and would have set up many more schools.
• What makes Carlsson School such a good school? It is not the buildings, but the deep understanding of what it takes to run a good school and how to transfer this culture and knowledge from one generation of teachers to another. This is the Intellecutal Property of the School. Had it been a for-profit school, there would have been an incentive and motivation for it to replicate the success of its one school to serve the huge waiting list of children needing education. This would be hugely valuable to society in two ways. One by expanding the supply of high quality schooling. The other by forcing poor quality school operators (both state-run and private schools) who are currently doing an injustice to the lives of so many children, to drastically improve their quality or wind up.
• The bottom line for any succesful voucher system is the presence of the for-profit motive. Without that the number of good quality private schools will be limited and will cater only to a small elite.

Prof. R. Govinda, Vice Chancellor of NUEPA, representing the Government point of view chaired the session. He spoke at the end and summed up the first session and responding to some of the comments of the other speakers

• We need public spaces in our society and schools are one such public space. We should not let schools become private spaces.
• The Government is working on the the draft rules for the RTE Act and is taking its time to ensure that it is well thought through and covers all the various aspects and anticipates all the potential pitfalls. The rules should be published soon.
• Unrecognised schools will not be closed down suddenly. They will all be given time and and the opportunity to improve their infrastructure and rise up to meet the requirements of recognition. So there is no need to fear that all the recognised schools will vanish one day leaving a large number of students in the lurch. The Government would not want that to happen.
• The RTE Bill is a contract between the State and the School and not the State and the Individual, like in the voucher model. The Government is only agreeing to meet the cost of educating a child if it goes to a State School. If the child goes to a private school, it will not be reimbursed any amount.

The second session was on Graded Recognition System: Positive Regulation and the third session was on Strengthening Government Schools. I will summarise these session too in future posts.

Education exports through the Mode 4 route - Indian teachers going to USA

The number of Indian school teachers going abroad to teach is increasing - a trend with both positive and negative implications. A recent ad (March 03, 2006), indicates that teachers from India are being offered salaries starting at Rs. 12 lakhs (about US$ 27,000) per annum to teach in district schools in USA. A similar ad seems to have appeared in The Hindu about an year ago (February 23, 2005).

A report in USA TODAY (July 2005) states that "New teachers (in USA) make, on average, $29,733 straight out of college. That's less than what nurses, accountants and others make, according to the National Education Association (NEA). The nation's largest teachers union will urge school districts to raise salaries for beginning teachers to at least $40,000, saying the move is essential to keep public education competitive with other fields." The average annual salaries of teachers in USA range from US$ 33,236 (in South Dakota) to US$ 58,287 (in California) according to NEA estimates in 2004.

Indian teachers seem to be getting salaries on par with new teachers in USA with the potential to increase their salaries as they become more experienced. These kind of salaries will be quite attractive to a large number of Indian teachers, but the tale of one Indian teacher (see box on that page) who has been to the U.S. to teach and returned back to India is describes the challenges they have to deal with.

Educational Consultants India Limited (Ed.CIL) had advertised for the recruitment of teachers from India for schools in USA. Ed.CIL has been recruiting Indian teachers for positions in various African countries for sometime now. This is an example of education exports through the mode 4 route (to use GATS terminology for trade in services).

Employment agencies in USA have been recruiting teachers from India for schools in USA for some time now. The agencies organise all expense paid trips for education administrators from schools in USA and do not charge schools to find the teachers for them. The agencies typically get the teachers to pay them a fee for finding them a job in USA. A report put out by NEA in June 2003 titled Trends in Foreign Teacher Recruitment along with an analysis of the report by an organisation that's against loss of American jobs to foreigners provides more detail.

------------

Here is the text of the recent ad by Ed.CIL - though the details seem to have been taken off the Ed.CIL website at the time of writing this post:

Date: March 3, 2006 12:54PM

Job Function : Teaching/Education
Industry : Educational/Training
Qualification : Postgraduate
Experience : 2-4
Level : Middle - Manager, Assistant Manager
Location : United States

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION :
Required School Teachers in USA. Require competent, smart and dynamic School Teachers for challenging assignment in District Schools at USA.
Salary: Rs. 12.0 lakh upwards per annum.
Subjects: Mathematics, Science and Special Education.
Eligibility: Post-graduation with B.Ed / M.Ed and minimum of three years post-qualification experience.

Apply latest by March 15th, 2006 in the prescribed format downloadable from Ed.CIL website (www.edcil.co.in).
For details contact: Project Manager (Teachers Recruitment - USA) by mail at: Educational Consultants India Ltd. (A Govt. of India Enterprise) or website.
CONTACT INFORMATION :
Address : Project Manager (Teachers Recruitment-USA), Educational Consultants India Ltd., Ed.CIL House, 18-A, Sector 16-A, Ph: 01202512003-6 (EPABX), Website: www.edcil.co.in, Noida/Greater Noida
Phone : 01202512001

Compensation offered by Sarala Birla Academy for Boys, Bangalore

The Sarala Birla Academy for Boys in Bangalore advertised in the Times of India (August 24, 2005, page X of appointments section) for full time teaching positions.

The Sarala Birla Academy for boys, is a school of international caliber situated in Bangalore. Set up in 2004 by The Aditya Birla Group, one of India’s largest multinationals, the School is an English medium boarding school (Class V to IX). By 2008 we plan to add three more standards, till Class XII.

Sarala Birla Academy requires motivated, value-based, competent teachers for:.

Full-Time Faculty Positions:
• English • Biology • Mathematics
• Physics • History / Social Sciences
• Hindi • Geography / Social Sciences
• Chemistry - Immediate appointment possible
• Environmental Education - Immediate appointment possible
•Learning Support Teacher (Part-Time) demonstrated experience in the development and implementation of individualized learning support programmes.

Essential Qualifications:
Trained post-graduates who have at least 5 years experience in C.I.S.C.E./I.G.C.S.E curriculum. Residential School experience desirable but not essential. B.Eds will be given preference.

Remuneration: Pay Package per month:
Rs.18,000/- to Rs.28,000/- with accommodation on campus, meals for self and spouse during term time, provision of education allowance for children (up to two children) plus other generous perquisites.

Teachers with the necessary qualifications, please send us a letter of application, a passport size photograph and your resume highlighting experience and your extra curricular interests. All applications should reach the Principal and The Director - Education, in separate envelopes within 10 days of the publication of this advertisement on the following addresses:

Dr. Bruce Robinson
The Principal, Sarala Birla Academy,
Jigni Road, Bannerghatta, Bangalore 560 083.
Tel: 080-51348200

Dr. Shyamal Ganguli
Director - Education,The Aditya Birla Group 329 Garhi Cantonment, Thapa Villa, Dehra Dun 248 003. Tel.: 0135-2756913

Salaries offered to teachers in schools in Chennai and interior Tamil Nadu

I noticed the following ads for teachers specifying the salaries that the schools were offering. The ads appeared in The Hindu Classifieds. 

One  was for teachers in the D.A.V. Group of Schools in Chennai. This is what the ad stated (Sunday, March 13, 2005).

D.A.V. Boys Senior Secondary School, 212-213, Lloyds Road, Chennai 600 086

Experienced and Trained Post Graduate / Graduate Teacher in Mathematics to handle Class IX and X (Salary Rs. 9,555/-) with other terminal benefits and

P.G.T. (Hindi) with Sanskrit knowledge to handle class XI and XII (Salary Rs. 11,465/-)

D.A.V. (Matriculation) Higher Secondary School, Block No. 12, J.J. Nagar, Mogappair (East), Chennai 600 037

Female Physical Education Teacher (Salary Rs. 7,845/-) with other terminal benefits

Additional increments will be given for competent and experienced candidate.

Another was for a school in Kallakuruchi in Villupuram district in Tamil Nadu. This is what the ad stated (Sunday, March 13, 2005).

A. K. T. Academy Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Kallakuruchi, Villupuram, Tamil Nadu 606 202

Experienced PGTs, TGTs & experienced graduates for all disciplines.

Salary:
Rs. 8,000/-  for classes XI-XII   
Rs. 7,000/-  for classes IX-X      
Rs. 3,800/-  for classes VI-VIII
Rs. 3,000/-  for classes  III-V      
Rs. 2,500/-  for classes KG to II
Rs. 5,000/-  for a psychologist

Perks for all: Free accommodation, Dividing system mess available on campus. Medical care and travelling allowance for holidays (conditions apply). For teaching couples, Rent free quarters and free education for children, travelling allowance and medical care (conditions apply).

Another was for a school in Panchetti, north of Chennai. This is what the ad stated (Sunday, March 20, 2005).

Velammal Matriculation School, Ponneri Road, Panchetti - 601 204

Require dynamic and dedicated HOD for all subjects, PGT, TGT,  SGT & KG trained teachers.

Salary:
Rs. 7,000/-  for classes IX & X      
Rs. 6,000/-  for classes VI-VIII
Rs. 5,000/-  for classes  III-V      
Rs.4,000/-  for classes KG to II

Lodging facility is available. 

 

Eritrea looking to hire Indian Lecturers/Professors

The Hindu (September 01, 2004) carried the following ad.

Lecturers/Professors for the Ministry of Education, Eritrea, N.E. Africa Eritrea Institute of Technology and Teacher Education College which are located around 20 km from Asmara (the capital) is looking for teaching faculty in the following subjects.

1. Engineering: Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Engineering Drawing, Computer Engineering, Graphics, Communication Technology, Aircraft Technology, Industrial Technology, Automotive Technology, Surveying & Drafting, Construction Technology / Civil Engineering, Telecommunications
2. Arts:English, History, Geography, Sociology, Economics, Fine Arts, Psychology, Anthropology, Journalism & Mass Communication, Business Studies, Pedagogical Studies, Physical Education
3. Science: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science

Qualifications and Experience: Post-graduation or Ph.D. in the relevant subject with minimum 5 years of teaching/research experience in a degree college/university.

Age: Below 55 years

Salary (Tax Free) per month:

• Lecturers: Rs. 41,000
  
• Assistant Professors: Rs. 55,000/-
  
• Associate Professors: Rs. 64,000/-
  
• Professors: Rs. 73,000/-

Additionally, free housing, free air tickets for self and spouse, paid leave etc. will be provided for all categories.

Recruitment Agent: Global Placements
Address : , 218 Amrutha Ville, Raj Bhavan Road, Somajiguda, Hyderabad 500 082, Tel: 2331-4054
Regd No.: 002100 / AP / PER / 300 / 3 / 3580 / 93

Maldives looking to hire Indian school teachers

The Hindu (September 01, 2004) carried the following ad.

School Teachers for the Ministry of Education, Maldives

Subjects: English, Maths, Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Fisheries Science, Accounts, Commerce, Business Study, Fine Arts, Western Music, Social Studies, History, Economics, Geography, Tourism Studies and Physical Education

Qualification: Graduation in the relevant subject with 1st or 2nd Class. B.Ed will be an added advantage

Experience : Minimum 2 years of teaching experience in a English Medium school

Age : Below 50 years

Tax free salary: Rs.23,400/- to Rs.25,500/- per month

Recruitment Agent: Global Placements
Address : , 218 Amrutha Ville, Raj Bhavan Road, Somajiguda, Hyderabad 500 082, Tel: 2331-4054
Regd No.: 002100 / AP / PER / 300 / 3 / 3580 / 93

The Hindu (April 02, 2003) had carried a similar ad for teachers to teach in Maldives. The salaries offered then were in the range of Rs.20,000/- to Rs.22,500/- per month and the age limit was below 55 years.

Compensation offered by Venkat International Public School (Bangalore) to staff

Venkat International Public School at Rajaji Nagar in Bangalore has advertised in The Hindu on August 04, 2004 for teachers at the secondary /senior secondary level (presumably Classes IX to XIII). The school is affiliated to CBSE. I was not able to find a web site for the school.

According to the ad (excerpted verbatim word for word)

Requires Dedicated Teachers
Candidates must have proven consistency with excellent track record in teaching and who can produce 100% Distinction need apply to teach:

Mathematics, Physics & Hindi
at Secondary/Senior Secondary level.
Candidates should be post graduates with B.Ed. / M.Ed. preferably from CBSE/ICSE background having at least five years experience.
(Only ladies need apply)

Remuneration: Rs. 144,000/- to Rs. 180,000/- per annum
Address of the school:
Venkat International Public School
5th Block, Rajaji Nagar, Bangalore 560 010
Tel: +91-80-2338-2572, Fax: +91-80-2340-2416

Note the strong statement that only ladies need apply.

According to another ad for staff at Venkat International Public School that appeared in The Hindu (July 10, 2002)

Position : Head Mistress Location : Delhi Qualification : Impressive Academic track Record, Role model qualities Excellent communicative and innovative skills, ability to motivate students and staff to achieve international standards in education/Should have CBSE background having Experience : atleast 5 yrs. of exp. in similar position Age : 35-40 yrs. Emoluments : 2,40,000 - 3,00,000 per annum

Position : Principal
Location : Delhi
Qualification : Impressive Academic track Record, Role model qualities
Excellent communicative and innovative skills, ability
to motivate students and staff to achieve international
standards in education/Should have CBSE background having
Experience : atleast 5 yrs. of exp. in similar position
Age : 35-40 yrs.
Emoluments : 2,40,000 - 3,00,000 per annum

Position : Vice Principal
Location : Delhi
Qualification : Impressive Academic track Record, Role model qualities
Excellent communicative and innovative skills, ability
to motivate students and staff to achieve international
standards in education/Should have CBSE background having
Experience : atleast 5 yrs. of exp. in similar position
Age : 35-40 yrs.
Emoluments : 2,40,000 - 3,00,000 per annum

Contact address :
The Chairman, Venkat International Public School
5th Block, Rajaji Nagar, Bangalore 560010
Phone : 080 3382572, Fax : 080 3402416

Reference : The Hindu Print Edition dt. Jul 10, 2002

What are the implications of India's teachers going off to UK and USA to teacher in schools there?

In an earlier post, I had described a new opportunity for Indian teachers, who are now going abroad to teach and had wondered if teaching not being a financially attractive career in India, could result in a flight of better teachers to other countries and a dearth of good teachers in India over time?

indiatogether.org reports in detail on this very issue, which probably deserves a lot more attention than it is getting.

Though the union ministry of human resource development is typically unconcerned, a tremor of apprehension is beginning to run through the boards and councils of management of India’s 1,286 CISCE (or ICSE) and 6,370 CBSE affiliated schools that a mass migration of the best and brightest teachers from these schools in particular may well be in the offing. With institutions of higher education in the West — particularly in the US and Britain — more than satisfied with the quality and performance of the large number of Indian academics hired by them, school managements and local governments in the English-speaking nations which are experiencing an acute shortage of teachers are all set to replicate the experience of their colleges and universities.

Unsurprisingly, given that the annual remuneration package of a school teacher (with three years experience) in even the most highly rated English medium CISCE and CBSE schools averages a modest Rs.80,000-100,000 against the $35,000 (Rs.16 lakh) offered by American and British local governments (with private schools offering better pay and perks), there’s considerable excitement within India’s long-neglected teachers’ community about this new development which many regard as a heaven-sent opportunity.

Last year in a paper entitled Managing Trade in Educational Services: Issues in India’s response to WTO Negotiations, Satish Y. Deodhar, assistant professor at the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, noted that “already about 10,000 secondary school teachers are working outside the country for sometime now, and increasingly there is a growing demand for Indian teachers, especially in mathematics, sciences and English.”

The outward-bound teachers reflect the fundamental transformation of the global labour market. For the first time, ‘grey collar’ overseas job opportunities, for teachers, nurses and chefs, are opening up in their thousands for Indian professionals.

“A paradigm shift has occurred from supply-determined migration to one that is now determined by demand. This means that we have moved from being a job-seeking economy to one that is being driven by demand in developed nations for services and migrant workers from developing countries,” says Binod Khadria, chairman of the Department of Education at the Zakir Hussain Centre for Educational Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and author of The Migration of Knowledge Workers: Second Generation Effects of India’s Brain Drain (Sage, 1999).

Whilst the emphasis is often on the negative impact of Indian teachers migrating abroad, there could also be positives to it.

While most people tend to deplore the ‘teachers drain’ phenomenon, Maya Menon, director of Bangalore-based The Teachers Foundation discerns a silver lining. “It is not necessarily deplorable. In India teaching is perceived as a stagnant profession with slow upward mobility and modest financial rewards. If new opportunities to work abroad with decent pay have arisen it will motivate more young people to enter this increasingly shunned profession,” says Menon.

Quite obviously the projected manpower shortages in developed nations will attenuate the already evident deficit of trained teachers. Therefore it makes sense for public and private sector educationists to tap this projected pool of surplus working-age Indians and train them to become teachers for India and the world beyond national borders.

Deep in the collective subconscious the opportunities offered by the changing demographic profile of the world are already galvanising education entrepreneurs across the country into action. In November the Bangalore University Syndicate approved the establishment of 136 teacher training (B.Ed and B.P.Ed) colleges in the city and 32 for the Kolar district. Though it’s highly unlikely that more than half of the applicants (mostly politicians) who have been licensed to promote these college will actually establish them, even respectable mainstream educationists such Dr. K.P. Gopalakrishna, chairman of the Bangalore-based NPS Group of seven highly rated secondary and higher secondary schools has identified teacher training as the next high growth sub-sector within the education system. “If in the near future licence-permit raj in higher education is removed, I would be interested in providing high quality teacher training education,” Gopalakrishna told EducationWorld last month (see EW November).

indiatogether.org's report is worth reading in full and includes an interview with an Indian teacher from Bangalore who went to the US to teach, returned back to India after an year and preferred to teach in India, rather than go back to the US.

Compensation offered by National Public School, Bangalore to staff

The National Public School at Koramangala in Bangalore has advertised in The Times of India (Bangalore edition) on May 12, 2004 for a variety of posts ranging from KG to Primary and High School to Senior Secondary School (Classes IX to XIII). The school is affiliated to CBSE.

The ad states that "the remuneration packages ranges from Rs. 1.8 Lacs to Rs. 3.00 Lacs per annum" for the following posts.

• Senior Secondary School (Class IX - XII)
  Candidates should have a relevant Masters Degree besides a Bahcelors Degree or Diploma in Education with excellent communication skills. They should also be proactive. Teachers with M.Phil or Doctorate will have an added advantage.

• Primary & High School
  Candidates should have a relevant Masters Degree besides a Bahcelors Degree or Diploma in Education with excellent communication skills. They should also be proactive.

• Montessori, Kindergarted & Kindergarten Associated Teachers
  These early learning centres call for suitably qualified and trained, in India or abroad Montessori and Kindergarten teachers. Apart from practising modern apporach towards education, they should bring enthusiasm, creativity and thorough professionalism to their jobs.

Compensation offered by Delhi Public Schools to staff

Delhi Public School (Panipat Refinery Township) advertised recently for trained and experienced candidates with good academic record, excellent communication skills and English Medium School Background for the following posts:

PGT*: Maths/Accountacy/Business Studies
QualificationsL Master's Degree in concerned subject (minimum 50% marks) with B.Ed. & minimum 3 years relevant teaching experience of +2 classes in a reputed English Medium School
Grade: Rs. 7,000-12,375

TGT**: Biology, Geography
Qualifications: Post graduate in the concerned subject (minimum 50% marks) with B.Ed.
Grade: Rs. 6,000-10,750

PRT***: Art & Craft
Qualifications: Graduate in art & craft the concerned subject (minimum 60% marks)
Grade: Rs. 5,000-8,500

Principal:
Qualifications: Masters Degree in Arts / Science, B.Ed. with 15 years of teaching experience. Including 5 years in administrative capacity.
Age : Upto 45 years (Relaxable)
Grade: Rs. 15,000-400-23,000

General: All posts will carry D.A. at par with Central Govt. Rules & other perks as per DPS society Rules (like HRA, PF, Gratuity, LTC etc)

* PGT - Post Graduate Teacher
** TGT - Trained Graduate Teacher
*** PRT - Primary Teacher