Education in India

Costs of formal schooling in Chennai - 2

The Chennai Chapter of the Indian Liberal Group (ILG) has published a report on its study of Costs of Formal Schooling in Chennai (December 2003). An earlier post on ILG's study, described the fee amounts charged in the various schools surveyed in Chennai.

While the ILG has done very well by raising relevant issues, the report is verbose and confusing in use of terminology. The observations are largely superficial and include a few sweeping generalisations. A more thorough study with proper justifications presented to back up the observations would have been good. Similar (but statistically sound) surveys with thorough analysis in different cities across India would be useful. Here are some excerpts from ILG's report.

The received classification of the costs of schooling is public costs and private costs. Since the proportion of schooling in terms of the number of seats available in the 'public sector' (that is government and government-aided institutions) is shrinking and the preference of parents is also increasing away from the public sector to the private (self-financing) sector, our focus is on the private costs of schooling. The private costs of schooling in turn consist of institutional costs and individual (parental) costs. As far as self-financing schools are concerned, there are no institutional costs: institutions only generate surplus from the fees collected from the parents.

It must be stated at the outset here that the range of the costs of schooling in the private sector is very wide indeed, as also the quality of schooling. Again, it must be stated that the cost and the quality are not exactly proportional. Even within the private sector - for that matter, within one and the same city like Chennai - there are schools where the costs are relatively quite low but the quality is high. When the costs are high it is often that quality is not low, but is not proportional to the costs. Much depends on the internal efficiency of the organisation and the 'surplus' generated. Our impression is that the law of diminishing returns begins to operate above a given cost threshold.

Before they rush to high profile schools which charge indiscriminately, parents who bend over backwards to secure admission for their children in them must know the findings of the famous study commissioned in the United States (The Coleman Report titled Equality of Educational Opportunity, 1975). It was a nation-wide study and covered a wide variety of schools, range of costs, facitlities and children studying in them. The finding was that the variance in academic achievement explained by school-related variables was much smaller than the variance explained by home-related variables.

In other words, the home contributes more to the education of the child than the school - however wonderful the school may be. So parents, expecially the educated ones, would do well to spend more time rather than money on educating their children - in a broad sense of the term - informally at home.

Most of these high profile schools screen the children seeking admission for the significant home-related variables - like the educational level of the parents, the mother's competence and availability for coaching her child etc., which implies that the schools' contribution to the child's achievement is just marginal. When children above a particular IQ level are assembled into a school classroom, the IQ level of the fellow pupils contributes enormously to the development of the child. Thus the children who assemble in the school paying high fees contribute to the quality of fellow children and not the school itself - except in the vicarious sense of being instrumental in bringing them together. This is an advantage hospitals do not enjoy!

The direct tangible and major inputs for quality of schooing are teacher quality and infrastructure. Of these two, again, teacher quality is the more critical one. There are in turn two components in teacher quality: teacher competence and teacher motivation. Both these teacher related componentns depend upon the compensation and ambience.

The private costs incurred by parents for schooling can be classified as 'Indirect' and 'Direct'. Those under 'Indirect' can be further classified as 'Optional' and 'Compulsory'. In 99% of the cases, the indirect expenses - particularly the compulsory ones like uniforms and books - are also incurred through the school. The 'Direct' expenses are fees paid to the school in the open for which receipts are issued and other amounts for which no receipts are issued. The heads under which fees paid to the self-financing schools, which fall under the 'Direct' category in the open, are:

1. Admission Fees
   
2. Special Fees
   
3. Tuition Fees

.
See the earlier post which described the fee amounts charged in the schools surveyed.

The categories under which money is collected without receipt are

1. Building Fund
   
2. Development Fund
   
3. Donation

Some schools collect a reasonable amount as interest-free deposit, which is refunded in full when the child completes his/her education. Most often the parents leave the deposit behind by their sweet will and pleasure as a donation, as a gesture of goodwill towards the alma mater of their child.

In order to understand the overall economics of schooling, we must have a look at the other side of the picture namely, the costs to be incurred by the institutions to provide schooling. However, for the present we can only classify the possible heads under which they fall and cannot have access to the actual data. Being entities registered under the non-profit cateogry, these data must be readily accessible to any member of the public - certainly to the parents, the stakeholders. If the present statutory provisions do not provide for access to the same, they can and must be changed towards rendering the economics of schooling transparent to the stakeholders.

The costs to be incurred by the institution to provide schooling are:

• Non-recurring
  • Building
  • Infrastructure
• Recurring
  • Depreciation
  • Upkeep
  • Operating costs
    • Salaries
      • Teaching Staff
      • Non-Teaching Staff
    • Materials/Supplies

A study of the total revenue and the total costs and the differences between them will indicate the surplus generated. Even a rough reckoning will indicate that the surplus is enormous. There are complaints that most of the schools pay veyr low salaries to the teaching and non-teaching staff. Low salary, heavy workload and severe demands to show 'results' drive teachers to drive the students in turn which has begun to result in suicide on the part of the students.

If the surplus exceeds a prescribed threshold in terms of revenue:surplus ratio, then the institution must be declared to be a for-profit organisation and treated accordingly. Such a reclassification has the advantage of bringing it under the Consumer Protection Act.

Costs of formal schooling in Chennai - 1

The Chennai Chapter of the Indian Liberal Group (ILG) has published a report on its study of Costs of Formal Schooling in Chennai (December 2003).

ILG conducted a survey based on secondary sources of data in a 'convenient' sample of 42 schools in Chennai (not necessarily a representative sample as they declare). The figures on the fees charged in the schools surveyed are provided below. Excerpts from the report are described in a separate post.

The contact person/address for the Indian Liberal Group's Chennai Chapter is
S. Radhakrishnan
16, Krishnapuri, R. A. Puram
Chennai 600 028
Telephone: +91-44-2493-7046.
Copies of the booklet on The Costs of Formal Schooling are available from the above address at request.

Justice Sinha dissents in the Supreme Court's judgement on commercialisation of education

Outlook has a report on the Supreme Court's judgement on Delhi schools:

In a major relief to parents, the Supreme Court today set stringent guidelines to prevent commercialisation of education by private schools in Delhi and directed the authorities to verify whether these were adhering to the conditions linked to allotment of land to them at concessional rates by the Government.

A three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice V N Khare, Justice S B Sinha and Justice S H Kapadia by a 2:1 majority judgement dismissed the petitions filed by almost all public schools in Delhi challenging a Delhi High Court order asking the Government to intervene in cases of excess charging of fees by them.

Justice Kapadia, writing the judgement for himself and the Chief Justice, ordered the Director, Education, to check the land allotment letters of all public schools in Delhi and inquire whether they have been adhering to the conditions laid down therein.

One of the conditions allegedly violated by most of the schools which got land at concessional rate was that they have not been admitting students of economically backward section for their inability to pay the "exhorbitant" fees.

The Court asked all recognised unaided schools in the capital to file with the Director, Education, their annual financial account giving details of the total fees collected from the students, the profit, the expenditure on various heads including salary and the surplus funds.

Quoting the Delhi School Education Act, Justice Kapadia said that in the fixation of fee structure several components have to be taken into account and capital expenditure could be made by the schools only from their surplus funds.

The apex Court also said that money generated by one school cannot be transferred to the parent society administering the school.

Giving a dissenting judgement, Justice Sinha said that it was open for the schools to maintain their account the way they deemed fit.

He also said that they could transfer funds from one schools to another and use the same for establishment of new schools as spread of education was the need of the hour.

Justice Sinha said the Courts should not put in clauses that were not there in the Education Act, but added that the schools must comply with the conditions laid down at the time of allotment of land at concessional rates by the Government.

The High Court in its October 1998 judgement had provided a methodology for fixing of fees in which consultation with the representatives of the parents was mandatory.

However, it had said that if thereafter the Government found the fees to be excessive, it could intervene in the matter and the schools could approach a statutory Committee to address their grievances.

Justice Sinha in his dissenting judgement has made a very important point by saying the Courts should not put in clauses that were not there in the Education Act. I have been unable to locate the full text of the Supreme Court judgement as yet on the Supreme Court's web site. It will be interesting to go through both the Supreme Court judgement and the Delhi School Education Act in detail to see what they have to say.

What should be taught in schools? How should we teach it?

I came across (via Yuvaraj) a very thought provoking paper titled An Education for the Future: The Foundation of Science and Values by Howard Gardner, Professor of Cognition and Education at Harvard University. Anyone with an interest in education should read it.

To summarise, Gardner says while there is a consensus on the importance of education (he is focussing primarily on pre-college education or school education in his paper), there is no comparable agreement about

The first dilemma: What should be taught?
What should be highlighted: facts, information? data? If so, which of the countless facts that exist? Subject matters and disciplines--if so, which ones? Which science, which history? Should we nurture creativity, critical thinking? If there is to be an additional focus, should it be arts, technology, a social focus, a moral focus? If you try to have all of these foci, you would break the backs of students and teachers, even given a demanding elementary and secondary school curriculum. If knowledge doubles every year or two, we certainly cannot multiply the number of hours or teach twice as quickly. Some choice, some decisions about what can be omitted, is essential.

or

The second dilemma: How should we teach?
Even if we could agree on which emphases should be adopted, one must still determine whether to teach all subjects or all students the same way, or to individualize the curriculum for each student or groups of students. How much emphasis should there be on computers, distance education, various media? What should be the role of home, school, the church, the media, or extra-curricular activities? How much responsibility should be placed on teachers, students, peers, parents, the wider community? Issues of pedagogy/instruction turn out to be as vexed as issues of curriculum/content.

Gardner argues that in making these two decisions, we should depend primarily on two foundations or bases: the science of learning, and our own values as human beings living in communities, and suggests ways in which we can build on both.

The Promise Foundation is applying psychology towards improving education

I recently came across The Promise Foundation, an interesting Bangalore-based organisation, which is applying psychology towards improve education. According to their web site,

The Promise Foundation is involved in applying the behavioural sciences to promote educational, social and economic development.

The Promise Foundation is deeply committed to systematic and scientific research. We examine aspects of the behavioural sciences that are linked to education and social and economic development. We conduct our own research to test existing theory and develop models relevant to the Indian situation. India presents a situation where the paucity of resources and urgency of need do not allow for the luxury of research that is not directly linked to application. Our attempt is to follow the action research model and the driving force behind our efforts at scientific investigation are to develop applications. Therefore, while we do believe that research must inform practice, we also have learnt that practice could lead and shape research. It is our attempt to translate relevant theory and research into applications that facilitate behavioural change amongst the economically disadvantaged.

Our modus operandi has been to blend direct service delivery by The Promise Foundation's teams, with training other organisations, to replicate these services in their locations. Our programmes are implemented at three levels:

• Direct implementation by our teams in schools, slums and rural areas, through workshops and intervention programmes. We currently work directly in about 55 schools spread across a range of Indian towns and cities.
• Training Programmes for adults working with children and youth from socially and economically disadvantaged homes (e.g. teachers, wardens, non-formal educators, animators, pre-school teachers). Our training courses are skills oriented and are firmly rooted in research findings.
• Consultancy to Government, Non-Governmental and International Organisations for training their workers and developing sustainable systems for programme implementation, assessment and appraisal. We currently work with close to 150 organisations that are involved with children and adolescents.

Most importantly our objective is to function as a Resource Group, that would provide consultancy to other organisations already working for children and youth. It is through our training programmes that we hope to see our interventions replicated on a larger scale.

The Promise Foundation's interventions follow the course of the person's growth and comprise three core programmes across the developmental spectrum.

• Stimulation Intervention Programmes (SIP), focusses on early childhood care and education, for children deprived of quality experiences for social, emotional and cognitive development.
  
• Programmes for Assisted Learning (PAL), is an accelerated learning programme targeting children who are at risk to failing and dropping out of school.
  
• Work Awareness and You (WAY), addresses the career development needs of high schoolers and helps them find answers to questions of planning for fruitful employment in the future.

A list of research papers describing their findings from research over the past decade are available on their site. We need more such efforts to help improve education by systematic study of the many challenges we face.

Indian teachers are going abroad to teach

Economic Times reported sometime back (Aug 2003),

The focus of Indian immigration has shifted in recent times from Indian techies and entrepreneurs to teachers who have joined the gallery of India's 'global citizens'.

The dearth of educators in UK and US are helping to create a growing global market for teachers.

In Britain there are as many as 7000 vacancies according to government officials and the National Union of Teachers predicts the figure to go up to as many as 40, 000. Also the salaries for teachers in UK are the biggest draw. An Indian teacher in Britain will start at £17,000 a year with a potential to draw as much as £27,000 once he or she has qualified in the UK, and or worked for a number of years. The only glitch is that the Local Education Authorities (LEAs) do not recognise Indian qualifications. Hence, even if an aspirant has a Ph.D. and ten years of work experience, they have to begin from the scratch.

Talking to PTI about the sudden spurt in demand for Indian teachers, K Pandian Rajan, managing director, Mafoi, a leading recruitment agency in the country says, "in both these countries, teachers are poorly paid compared to other professionals. The local population is reluctant to join the profession hence the schools have started hiring teachers from India".

Typically, the school boards contact recruitment agencies which in turn advertise the vacancies in India for qualified candidates. After the applicants are vetted, school officials either come to India or interview potential candidates over phone, or in some cases through video-conferencing, before employing them.

The article also goes on to highlight the problems and challenges for the Indian teachers in adjusting to a different culture and society.

According to a report in The Week (dated March 16, 2003),

Indian teachers have been popular in various parts of the world, particularly in Africa and the developing countries of Asia. Thousands of Indian school teachers taught in Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa till a change in governmental policies and xenophobic outbreaks forced them to leave. However, demand still exists in a few countries like Zambia. In the Gulf region too, Indian teachers are in demand.

Scouting for willing candidates are agencies in the private and public sector. Educational Consultants India Limited, a public sector unit, recruits teachers as and when vacancies arise as a result of agreements between governments.

"We go about it through ads and education fairs, but we have the added credibility of being a government institution," says Ajit Kumar Motwani, director (technical) of Educational Consultants, which sends more than 400 teachers abroad every year. "Our focus is on Asian and African countries."

Besides their grasp of English, Motwani gives two more reasons for the global preference for Indian teachers. "Indians are adaptable to the curriculum," he says. Not to forget their respect for local traditions, one of the reasons why Gulf countries prefer Indian teachers, since they don't cause culture shocks the way teachers from the west might. "They are value for money," adds Motwani.

Since teaching isn't a financially attractive career in the Indian context, will this result in a flight of the better teachers to other countries and a dearth of good teachers in India over time?

Exporting education from India

Business Standard reports (via Rediff)

A focussed programme to establish India as a quality destination for higher education is being drawn by the Educational Consultants India Limited (EdCIL), a Government of India enterprise, which is planning to attract at least 1,500 foreign students from countries across Asia and Africa in the next year.

It expects an estimated revenue of $5 million -- paid by foreign students in 2004-05.

EdCIL plans for a revenue growth target of 200 per cent for education exports in 2004-05. The strategy is to aggressively market Indian education in Asian (SAARC, Middle East, and South East Asia) and African countries, which have been identified as the potential markets.

This will be done through personalised visits, publicity in these countries and working closely with the country missions, universities, and NRI/PIO bodies in these countries.

The number of target countries is being increased to 24 from 8 last year. The focus countries this year will be Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE and Yemen.

An additional 25 institutions will be brought under the EdCIL programme for promoting Indian education abroad. It proposes to target more premier institutions in the public and private sectors for signing MoUs. These institutions will benefit from enhanced inflow of international students in India.

To make the campaign effective, EdCIL is promoting India as a country with a vast and developed network of 300 universities of higher learning and over 15,000 colleges in the fields of engineering, IT, bio-tech, agriculture, management, medicine, pharmacy, arts, science, commerce, humanities and social sciences among others.

The government has created an exclusive scheme called Direct Admission of Students Abroad (DASA) wherein 15 per cent of seats have been reserved in premier technical institutions such as the National Institutes of Technology (formerly the Regional Engineering Colleges) and centrally funded institutions for foreign nationals/PIOs/NRIs.

According to Ajit Motwani, technical director, EdCIL, education is a sizeable and growing exports business. The education and training sector ranks fifth in export of services in the United States.

It is estimated that there are almost 1.8 million students studying outside their home country worldwide. He says that India has a great potential to attract international student traffic.

Important factors considered by students while looking for international education options are cost, proximity, and overlap with their cultural values. For countries in Asia and Africa, India offers a friendly environment, cultural diversity and more importantly the best value for money options.

He said one of the underlying benefits of increased international student traffic is the resultant globalisation of the campuses. It is aimed to leverage education at affordable cost proposition to further accelerate the process of creation of modern infrastructure in the tertiary education sector.

Apart from foreign exchange, other non-quantifiable benefits like two-way supports in trade, investments, and closer international business connections will be the result of such an initiative.

Ed. CIL has a web site (http://www.edcil.co.in), but their site seems to be currently inaccessible. Individual educational institutions themselves need to get more aggressive in marketing and promoting Indian education abroad rather than relying solely on Ed. CIL. Why isn't the Association for Indian Universities doing anything? Why aren't the IITs and IIMs doing anything, despite being India's best known brands abroad? IDP Australia, an independent not-for-profit organisation owned by 38 of 39 Australian universities is aggressively exporting Australian education to India.

Note: The average annual tuition fee for foreign students in India is in the region of about US$ 3,500. Adding another $1,500 per year as annual living expenses, that works out to US$ 5,000 per student per year and Ed.CIL is aiming for an annual revenue of US$ 5 million over the current year. For perspective, according to the Ministry of Tourism, the average foreign exchange earnings per tourist works out to about US$ 1,250 per tourist and about 950,000 tourists visited India during the period Jan-March 2004 with a total earnings of US$ 1.16 billion.