India today, schools

Schools in India today

Up at Teacher Plus, thanks to the team at Teacher Plus. 

Today, the economic disparity in our society is abysmally high and this disparity is only increasing. Not only does the top 1% of India’s population own more than 40% of its wealth but this 1% has also seen its wealth rise by more than 50% during recent decades. All of this has been written enough to sound cliched but unfortunately this is the story of our times.

So, how are the schools placed amidst all this?

One way to look at the schools is the boards they are affiliated to. Broadly, we have the IB, IGCSE (Cambridge) and ICSE schools at the top, read - the most expensive schools. Then, somewhere in the middle are the CBSE schools. And, at the bottom of the pyramid lie the state board schools, including government run schools. The scenario becomes stark when we talk numbers. The total number of IB, IGCSE (Cambridge) and ICSE schools, all put together, is less than 5,000; while the total number of schools in India is around 15,00,000.

Fees the schools charge or the goodwill they harbour are not necessarily driven by the boards. However, schools the children attend are not just influenced but are largely determined by their parents’ wealth. And, these numbers mirror the inequalities in our society. A society where, more often than not, wealth and caste go hand in hand and it is anything but easy to climb the ladder.

These schools for the elite are miles ahead of the schools where the economically disadvantaged study, be it the infrastructure i.e. the classrooms, subject laboratories, internet paraphernalia, and sports facilities or otherwise i.e. the range of subjects offered, number of qualified teachers and opportunities for exposure.

The differences, though, lie deeper.

For the elite, the small minority, the schools are increasingly like any other product or service they purchase. Not very different, for example, from the restaurants they frequent for food - where they ‘order’ and ‘pay’ for what they desire, ‘consume’ what they then feel like, and nonchalantly ‘dispose’ the rest. These schools too increasingly treat parents as ‘clients’ and many a time accept the parents’ unreasonable demands to retain them. Not surprising then that they often end up like service providers who over-sell and underperform. On top of this, for many of these parents, the schools their children go to is a matter of pride, a bragging right at the parties they attend.

For the economically disadvantaged, the clear majority, the scenario is different - they retain some modicum of respect for the schools. They look up to the schools, as the schools hold the promise of a better future for them. And children in these schools still have a spark in their eyes - hunger for learning what they do not know. Though many of them also attend schools to escape from their day-to-day lives - lives that are not exactly pleasant. Teachers, in these schools, have an upper hand and it is not uncommon to see them misuse it while the parents believe that schools will miraculously help them rise up the socio-economic ladder.

Today not only do the children from different economic classes go to different schools but these classes also look at schools differently i.e. schools now have different meanings for different economic classes. This is yet another step that will make one part of the society oblivious to the existence of the other, yet another reminder that we as a society are going on a slippery slope downhill.