Friends,
This blog of mine is likely to create a flutter and raise a
few brows as the content is a bit contentious one .Nevertheless couldn’t resist
from sharing my thoughts – rather questions plaguing my mind – which still
remain unanswered.
Many of us who haven’t sent their kids to school as yet or
those who don’t have kids would not be abreast of the exorbitantly high fees
prevailing these days in schools.
On the basis of my interactions with couple of parents , I discovered that a decent school in Mumbai charges anywhere between Rs 50,000 to a few Lakh rupees per year for an entry level class in a school – the entry level is a nursery or a kindergarten class.
Fundamentally, I am not really surprised at the money being charged considering the high costs of inflation but I have a few points worth pondering over.
1) Are
the fees being charged really tantamount to the quality of education being provided?
OR
2) Is
the high fee a reflection of the place /locality where the school is located –
i.e.
Real Estate in Metros or Tier 1 cities being absurdly costly as compared to
semi-urban places OR .
3) Is
it that the money being charged is spent on maintaining a swanky infrastructure
– much of which just adds nothing but mere glamour? OR
4) Is
it that the high quality teachers are available only at a premium and therefore
there is a race to get the best ones on the board? OR
5) Is
it that, because, apart from education, these schools also nurture the children
to excel in extracurricular activities, sports and few events like taking them
outside their city or even to a different country to hone their skills in areas
of communication and socialize with different sects of children.
6) Add
to the basic tuition fees, there are equally soaring costs of transportation
from home to the school premises – ranging anywhere from one thousand to a few
thousand rupees a month.
Well, we may not be sure which of the above are true or
would get answered to our own satisfaction. Without spending too much time
trying to do a deep-rooted analysis, wanted to dwell on the below areas -
Why not move away from a traditional brick and mortar school to a more easier e-learning kind of concept where a set of experts ( teachers) meet up at a remote place or multiple places as deemed appropriate and impart the same education by means of the latest technical know-how.
·
Kids can go to a nearby centre (as per their
choice of location) and this could be done at non peak hours so that they are
saved from the wrath of commuting in the horrendous traffic of metros.
·
Schools should attempt to see if they can
unburden the kids from the heavy school bags by enabling the concept of
teaching on tablets /devices and e-books.
Most of you (readers)
reading this blog ,would argue that nothing can match the likes of tutoring as
rendered by a direct eye-to-eye contact vis-à-vis a webcam or tele-presence or an
alternate technology. I would respect the contrarian‘s view but I feel we could
always strike a balance by giving a few sessions in person and the remaining
ones via the computers.
Most of us also believe that learning in
the school with a typical black-board, chalk and duster is a preferred way of
learning as compared to learning via the technology way in a common centre
without a physical teacher but I guess somewhere there has to be a start to get
something new.
Some folks would have a pertinent point
around the e-books story that e-books are not easily adaptable for children and
kids prefer the hard cover books /notebooks and as per them that’s the best way
to learn. Well, honestly, I don’t want to debate on this point as I am myself
in a dilemma on this aspect .
The high
cost of education is affordable only to the rich & affluent - but what
about the section of people economically belonging to the middle-class
families. Imparting quality education to children is becoming more and more
unaffordable and is a distant dream especially for those parents who have more
than 2 children.
I remember those times when there was free education for the girls - a well appreciated initiative envisioned by Indira Gandhi - the then Prime minister of India.
Well , there are government schools providing free education or low cost private schools but am pretty sure they don’t come anyway closer to the quality of education that the kids deserve. The government schools do not have a basic infrastructure or for that matter a teacher to teach and most of us would not even dare to recommend such government schools to any of our acquaintances.
If the status of education is by any means going to be measured as a factor of money being spent – then we are seriously heading towards the best minds only belonging to those born with a golden spoon.
Sounds scary isn’t it..
Hope this gets each and everyone of us to really think as to
what kind of education we want to provide to the next generation rather than just
joining the ‘rat race’ of education through expensive schools !
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