Politics and Business in Education

 

A few days back, the Tamilnadu assembly passed a bill to exit from NEET. CMs of states are still undecided on the opening of schools.  Our politicians have had their say on various education-related decision-making already. If you leave the education to politicians they will create quotas for their vote banks. If you leave the business to control education they will create Kota factories. The choice is either quota or Kota.  Either way, deserving candidates with a privileged or an underprivileged background lack fair access to education. Humanity despite its advances in all fields still has not found a solution to equal opportunity education based on voluntary choice of individual liking relating to one’s vocation and choice of his/her way of life.

The rationale behind the NEET resolution is to have a level field for everyone to avail of medical education.  Then there are various political nuances of Tamilnadu politics based on its stand on federalism or caste equation which I don’t want to delve upon as I already said if you leave education to politicians they will play to populism and election equations.  But from an educational point of view, the state did not want to grant advantage to those who have access to coaching factories. That again creates an uneven field for students of other boards like CBSE/ICSE in Tamilnadu.   We have to agree to the right of elected representatives of the state to look upon the interests of the state constituents. The question remains if Standard XII marks will be a good evaluation parameter granting a level playing field. How do you guarantee that there is no coaching industry that thrives for whatever agreed on entrance criterion?  The business will find its way in education how so ever Politicians would like to control.  

Education has been through this Business-politics circle all along. But one thing is sure: The government’s important role to ensure basic education to all. District and Municipal schools definitely have roles. Mid-day meal scheme is a serious incentive for underprivileged and rural kids. In the urban landscape, we have seen how the business of private schools has thrived and admissions at the Kindergarten level are contested. But the Government's control over private schools is something which is a tricky issue. Parents approach the government for issues like regulations on admission and education costs, exams. Curriculum, testing, affiliations have been under government regulation since 1947.   RTE introduced at lower levels has various implications. Here again, it is a choice between political interference and business clout.

We cannot have resources like those in the US or western countries to have strong public schools and its infrastructure. What needs to be done is government should focus more on strengthening basic education and while not spreading it out thin by investing in creating higher educational institutions.  Strengthening means creating better infrastructure and skilled teaching staff with a revamped curriculum that is more employment-driven. The idea should be to create government schools as an option for all urban and rural populace. And leave private education and its business to regulate itself based on market dynamics.  That’s the only model of coexistence of politics and business in Education

For higher education, as said let’s not spend more government resources to create more institutes of higher education. Whatever state-run universities that have delivered in terms of creating value for the country should be given more autonomy and allow more industry interaction to further emphasize on employability of students. The autonomy should extend in ensuring the quality of students entering.  The inclusion angle which was ensured by quotas need also be evaluated as no society can sustain ignoring quality in long run. It was very important to ensuring equality and inclusion to give chance to the underprivileged but the idea should also extend to create quality once equality is ensured. A time-bound approach is essential for this. But then politics and optics have created this anomaly as this goes on perpetually. 

The success of the IIT system is due to the difficulty level of JEE. This ensures that the best analytical minds enter the system. Though many argue that IITians have contributed more outside India but the statistics are misleading as there is a sizable number who have contributed in India. As economies go beyond boundaries and are interwoven, the impact has increased.    JEE also needs to be innovated to dismantle patterns created for cracking the exam. We have seen last decade how Kota factories have diluted quality IITs used to have earlier. Ignore than fanfare about crores packages, but the IIT brand has been diluted with its spread. Leaving aside IIT, the mushrooming of private and public colleges has not helped. Already we have seen quantity has not ensured quality and industry does not find most of the graduates employable. So it is wise for the government to focus on basic education.  Let the business of higher education justify itself by creating value for students who pay for it.

The challenges are enormous for a developing country like India with its population to evolve a sustainable educational structure. Despite having the resources like those in the US and demographics, the US still finds challenges in the access to higher education to all. The recent admission scandals have exposed the fairness of the system and its equitable structure. The system is not free of the rat race as we have it here. The market dynamics have found students burdened with hefty educational loans and have rendered higher education overpriced for the return on Investment. 

We have to realize the importance of human capital. The history of the Indian economy has proven how our human capital helped us towards a knowledge economy and world-class service industry. As we dream of Make in India or innovation/research economy, we need a strong self-sustaining education. Basic, Vocational, and Higher Educations are three pillars of India's story. Let the business and government work together to ensure that these pillars are strengthened and not weakened by their collusion.