The other day I had a chat with a driver Anthony, who was ferrying me across the city so that I could drop my child at school. After we dropped her off...
He asked me, "madam, is this school very good? why do you come so far?"
I said, "yes, it is very good and worth coming this far".
He asked, "Madam, what are the fees charged?"
I did not want to lie to him, yet I did not want to make him uncomfortable with the real picture so I decided to quote what many schools charge these days for primary education in Bangalore - about 1.5 Lacs!
He looked disappointed but the reason was different from what you and I would have imagined.
He said, "Ma'am my son goes to XYZ private school (a very well-known name) and I pay 1.5 lacs as fees there but padhai achha nahin hota madam (the education there is not good)"
I asked, "why what happened?"
He said, "My son doesn't recall anything he learnt at school...when I ask him a question, he cannot answer, when I see his books, I see incomplete work, when I talk to the teachers, they don't give me a proper answer."
It was astonishing to first realise he has stretched himself to pay 1.5 lacs per annum as school fees for his son and despite that he does not feel his son is learning.
Just like paying more money to a doctor does not guarantee good healthcare. Unfortunately, we don't even have enough clarity on what good healthcare means or what good education means. Many years ago illume was engaged in research for the Aastrika Foundation and the starting point of the research was some of these questions - does shelling out a couple of lacs for a delivery guarantee a pregnant woman ethical, evidence-based maternity care? Does one have a choice about even having a normal delivery? Is writing down the birth plan the right of a mother-to-be? Unfortunately, the best-in-class hospitals do not even talk about these aspects.
It is the same with education, do parents have clarity about learning outcomes? Do schools hide incompetencies under the facade of child-led learning? Is progressive education the same as slow, easy learning sans any pressure? Does the presence of computers and labs and playful equipment and colourful furniture guarantee a good learning environment? Or is it the presence of a bouquet of extracurriculars, the size of the building or whether there is a swimming pool on campus? What should learning outcomes look like as the country moves towards adopting new standards in education? Do parents understand the NEP? Take any discussion on NEP and the only question I heard parents ask is - will it apply to my child's school? Will they have to learn the local language? What is in it for me? Why are parents changing schools 2 or 3 things during the course of the 10 years of primary school years? Why is the search for schools clouded by confusion? Why is there dissonance even after making a shift or paying 1.5 lacs as fees per annum? What would it take to feel a sense of assurance that the child is learning and is being taken care of and how much is enough to buy that quality of education?
There would be many Anthonys out there who contribute to the black hole of education each year in the hope that the black hole is in fact a tunnel and there will be light at the other end of it.
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