PRIVATISATION: A NEW SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOL EDUCATION
BACKGROUND:
Living near a village, where the migrant labour from UP and Bihar reside in slum conditions, I came across many young children struggling to study. Financial situation made it impossible for the girl children to take extra help in the form of tuitions. So I stepped in to help them in their studies. Two of such girls were in the same class as my elder son and I was shocked and distressed to find the gap in the level of education. These girls were students of Government School.

Over the time period, I realized that some of these students in classes such as seventh and eighth were unable to write a single, simple sentence in Hindi, such as ,’’mera naam Seema hai”. Similarly addition of 15 plus 5 would have them counting on their fingers. About English, they could write the alphabet and simple three letter words. And I was supposed to help them with not only these subjects but also Social Studies and Science which they had in English medium. With such poor standards of study, it is amazing that these girls have completed class tenth successfully now. I do not take any credit for that as I am ashamed at their level of education.
INTROSPECTION:
I seriously thought about what and where the things are going wrong. I had studied in a government school, for two and half years, back in 1980-1983 and I had a fair idea of the system at that time. So one day I visited their school. I was surprised and happy to see the excellent infrastructure, with proper classrooms, play fields, benches, blackboards, toilets and even laboratory and library. So what was different? I talked to students and teachers informally. It is mostly the apathy of teachers which is the main culprit. Some of the teachers were not available. Some were just not taking classes which they should have been.
And the most conscientious ones were in the class where they had either asked one of the students to read the chapter( it is different matter that reading was nowhere near what the chapter wanted to convey) or they had some notebook in hand and asked one of the students to copy out from the notebook, presumably answers of the book questions; to the blackboard. The students sitting in the class were ordered to note down these answers. Since the student writing the notes on the blackboard had no idea what those scribbles meant and his/ her handwriting on the blackboard made the things worse, the net result was the notebooks of the students in the class contained an interesting array of squiggles.
Why was this apathy?
Who could put it right?
Why the education department not be held responsible for this utter waste of time, effort and money, in providing education, which leads to nothing?
And what about thousands of students who consider themselves as educated but are unable to compete in the employment market?
Instead of going around in circle as to find causes and reasons, I thought what could be the alternative to improve this sad state of affairs.
NEBULOUS IDEA:
Can the government education provision be given to private sector on contract basis?
I have some experience in Government sector. In many Central government departments , vehicles are hired for usage of staff and other services. The contract for the vehicle is monthly lumpsum amount payable to the contractor which includes apart from the vehicle hire cost, fuel cost, cost of hiring driver, repair expense and has specific provisions as to the number of operational days and the kilometers to run per month, number of working hours per day, carryover of leftover kilometers in one month to next month, overtime charges for the driver and overtime kilometer expense; etc. This whole package is usually one third the total costs of owning a vehicle by the government department. Ownership of vehicle entails capital cost of buying new vehicle, driver’s salary and other incidental costs related with permanent government employees, repair and maintenance expenses and of course the fuel charges. Apart from the cost factor, the contract system is advantageous as to availability of alternative vehicle to be provided by the contractor, even when the hired vehicle is under repairs and maintenance.
So the idea,’ CAN EDUCATION BE SOURCED OUT?’
ANSWER: Yes it can be. Lets check the modalities.
PRACTICAL ASPECTS:
The idea is to hire out the schools lock, stock and barrel to some agency/organization/ individual (called the contractor) who has presence in the education field with some past experience. Each school, as to its, location, infrastructure and other factors is unique and hence each school should be treated as a separate unit. Taking example of Chandigarh ( being a UT with high literacy rate), it has 80 secondary government schools functioning as on 30.09.2010. (source: http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/SES-School_201011_0.pdf)
The budget of the Department of Education( DOE) Chandigarh shows two segregations of the schools: Elementary and Secondary schools. ( source: http://chdeducation.gov.in/r2i_dpi_sc.pdf)
The Right to Free & Compulsory Education Act 2009 provides a justiciable legal framework that entitles all children between the ages of 6-14 years free and compulsory admission, attendance and completion of elementary education. (source: Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Government of India, http://mhrd.gov.in/overview-ee)
Thus elementary education is presumably till class Eighth. Taking this as the parameter, secondary schools are 80 as on 30.09.2010. To test the waters, one school is taken as the pilot case and in this project Government Senior Secondary School Sector 45 has been taken as the Pilot Study School.
THE TENDER:
As in all government undertakings, concerned department floats a tender. In this case the upper most limit of the tender is the cost of running the school. The costs, on the basis of the budget of Department of Education Chandigarh, included are:
- Salaries of school
- Wages of the school
- Medical treatment expense for the school
- Office expenses of the school
- Supplies and material
- Other charges
Costs not taken into account for the tender purpose are Capital expenditure of constructing the school, equipment cost and cost of furnishing it, repair and maintenance expense, Inspection expenses and incidental administration expenses, scholarships and mid day meal expense. Further GSSS-45 has 123 teachers (as per SRC report of 2015-16) and 2613 students on roll (as per Enrollment, Department of Education Chandigarh website, as on 30.09.2014).
The above six costs for the Pilot Study School, for the year 2015-16, are as follows:
REVENUE EXPENDITURE AND THE PERCENTAGE TO TOTAL COST FOR GSSS-45 CHANDIGARH
S.NO. |
COST |
COST ALLOCATED TO GMSS-45 |
%age of total expenditure |
Average expense per staff member
( total staff 123) |
1 |
Sec school salaries |
47,790,451.37 |
92.67 |
388540 |
2 |
Sec school wages |
1,568,306.01 |
3.04 |
12750 |
3 |
Sec school medical treatment |
353,092.90 |
0.68 |
2871 |
4 |
Sec school office expenses |
599,028.61 |
1.16 |
|
5 |
Sec school supplies and material |
324,132.80 |
0.63 |
|
6 |
Sec school other charges |
937,636.39 |
1.82 |
|
|
TOTAL ANNUAL |
5,15,72,648 |
100 |
4,04,161 |
|
MONTHLY |
42,97,721 |
|
33,680 |
These costs have been calculated by taking the budgeted figures of the given six expenditures for the year 2015-16; and then allocating and apportioning the same to Pilot Study School on suitable basis. (Detailed calculations and basis of allocation of costs are given in Annexure-I)
The tender can have provision for increasing the amount annually. In government departments norm is to increase the budget by ten percent every year. So that increase can be passed on to the contractor.
RIGHTS, DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CONTRACTOR:
- The students will not be shifted out and the school will be accepted along with all the students on rolls on one particular date. ( Say, April 15 of the academic year)
- The policy of new admissions of students will not change and continue as it was in the previous year.
- School name will not change and Department of Education will remain the controlling agency.
- School can revert back under the direct aegis of DOE, at any point time but during the contract period, suitable notice period can be decided upon ( say one month or the end of academic quarter; whichever is later).
- The sports and co curricular activities prevalent in the school in the previous year will continue. In case of addition or deletion, mutual agreement of the Contractor and Department of Education is required.
- The contractor will be given free hand to hire teachers and other staff at his own terms but the new staff hired by the contractor, will not be government servants in any sense of the word. Also whichever existing teachers are not suitable as per the requirements of the Contractor, these will be shifted out. As there are many vacancies in other schools, Department of Education can easily accommodate them in those schools.
- The school will be kept clean and safe for the students, by the contractor and he will be given free hand to employ the required staff for cleaning etc; and for administrative functioning also.
- Contractor will be free to retain any of the existing staff ( staff should also agree to stay) or may ask DOE to transfer out any staff member, at any time. DOE will transfer out the staff member within 30 days of the request.
- Contractor , after receiving the transfer order, will be at liberty to relieve the staff member of the charge.
- The contractor will provide monthly statement as to number of teachers, staff and students attending the A set perfoma can be prepared for this purpose, which, duly filled, can be emailed on the last day of the month by the contractor to DOE.
- The attendance rolls of teachers, staff and the students will be responsibility of the contractor and DOE can inspect those at any time.
- Contractor will be paid some lumpsum amount for repair and maintenance and will be responsible for maintaining the school in good condition. However it is obligatory upon Department of Education to handover the school to the Contractor in good condition.
- The expenses related to salaries, wages, medical treatment, office expenses, supplies and material and other charges ( to be specified) are to be borne by the contractor.
- The award for the contract will be for atleast five years and Contractor will have to show results after two years.
- All the prospective contractors should be allowed to evaluate the school for at least fifteen days when the tender is floated, they will be allowed to roam around the school, to assess the infrastructure available, teaching systems and students’ standards of study.
- The free books, uniforms and meals; scholarships etc. will be responsibility of the Department of Education and provided by Department of Education. The Contractor will focus on academics, sports and co curricular excellence only.
- Quarterly PTMs will be conducted by the contractor. owever practical experience shows that parents are not comfortablePractical experience shows that most parents do not feel comfortable at such meetings due to vast gap between the teachers and the parents in terms of education. However parents will be encouraged to provide suggestions for improvement in the education system.
- Contractor will not be allowed to charge anything over and above the prescribed fee for the government schools.
- In case the school intends to undertake something extra, like field trip or picnic or conduct some school function/ play / program/ sports event/ meet; then it can seek additional funds from DOE and DOE may provide the necessary funding for the same in full or in part or not at all.
- There can be an upper threshold limit till which Contractor can ask the students to pay for each such activity ( say Rs.100 per student for one activity). In one academic year, students should not be asked to pay more than a specified limit ( say not more than Rs.500 per student in the whole academic year).
- However the details of such activities, including the amount asked from the students, must be submitted to DOE, in advance.
PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL OF THE CONTRACTOR:
Performance Appraisal is an important factor to understand the success of this system.
- As the session starts in April and in March annual exams take place. The March exams held just prior to handing over of the school to the contractor;, the written sheets, projects and other related things of all students; should be meticulously saved by Department of Education under seal and in both soft copy and hard copy.
- Authorised Representative of DOE can visit the school anytime without notice.
- The first evaluation of the contractor should take place after one year. The sheets of the students appearing in this year exam should be compared with the sheets of students of the same class of the previous year. For example if the first year of the Contractor, ends in March 2019, then sheets of class one of 2017-18 ( saved under seal) are compared with the sheets of class one of 2018-19 and so on.
- If the performance of the contractor is satisfactory, then after two years, appraisal in this form can be abandoned and DOE/CBSE can conduct half yearly tests to judge the continuing progress of the students.
FINANCIAL ASPECTS
- The tender should be for five years, and there should be a fixed sum payable for each year.
- There can be a percentage raise each year, to nullify the impact of inflation.
- Payment to the contractor can be made quarterly.
- The expansion, restructuring, constructions, etc, of the school will be borne by the DOE and to accommodate these changes fresh tender will be called for. Hence if the first tender was for five years, then new changes ( especially of capital nature) can take effect only after five years.
- However in the five year period there can be requirements for new books for the library, new laboratory equipment etc. ( expenditure of capital nature), which should be incurred by DOE as it was done in the previous three years. Taking previous three years as the base as to the activities and areas where such expenditures were incurred; and adding a percentage to the amount of previous expenses, such expenses can be incurred by the DOE and these should be evenly spread out for each quarter.
- There should be a linkage between the number of students and payment to the contractor. If the number of student rises above ten percent of the previous year ( enrollment is as on 30th September) than proportionate rise should be given to the contractor and in case the number of student falls then proportionate decrease in payment can be made.
Example:
Percent of students of previous year payment
90% to 110% As per the amount under tender agreement
>90% ( say 87%) Same percent decrease ( 13% decrease )
<110% ( say 115%) Same percent increase ( 15% increase)
Number of students can be taken as the average number of students in that quarter.
LIMITATION OF THE STUDY:
The data used here is for different years for different parameters. For example budget figures are for the financial year 2015-16, while the number of government schools and number of teachers in government schools; in Chandigarh, have been calculated as per the data as on 30.09.2010. Enrollment of students (total number of students in high schools and secondary schools) is, as on 30.09.2014. However the data does not have any impact on the theoretical premise and possible solutions, of the study. It simply provides a basis to start with.
It is common knowledge that private schools fare better in terms of education than the government schools. This experiment can be tried in one school each, in different cities. This model combines the government control and fee structure but more professional and competitive environment. Since the idea is radical, there might be many pitfalls. But I cannot think of anything which cannot be overcome. Any takers?
ANNEXURE –I
COST ALLOCATION TO PILOT ACHOOL-GSSS-45 CHANDIGARH
BUDGET HEAD |
HEAD TITLE |
TOTAL AMOUNT
( in Rs.)
Budget of 2015-16 |
BASIS OF ALLOCATION |
TOTAL
IN CHANDIGARH |
GSSS-45 |
COST ALLOCATED TO GMSS-45
( in Rs.) |
CALCULATION |
03-00-01 |
Secs school salaries |
1,066,543,000.00 |
number of teachers |
2745 |
123 |
47,790,451.37 |
10666543000*123/2745 |
03-00-02 |
Sec school wages |
35,000,000.00 |
number of teachers |
2745 |
123 |
1,568,306.01 |
35000000*123/2745 |
03-00-06 |
Sec school medical treatment |
7,880,000.00 |
number of teachers |
2745 |
123 |
353,092.90 |
7880000*123/2745 |
03-00-13 |
Sec school office expenses |
32,569,000.00 |
number of students |
142068 |
2613 |
599,028.61 |
32569000*2613/142068 |
03-00-21 |
Sec school supplies and material |
17,623,000.00 |
number of students |
142068 |
2613 |
324,132.80 |
17623000*2613/142068 |
03-00-50 |
Sec school other charges |
50,979,000.00 |
number of students |
142068 |
2613 |
937,636.39 |
50979000*2613/142068 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TOTAL |
1,210,594,000.00 |
|
|
|
51,572,648.08 |
|
|
|
around 121 crores five lakhs and ninety four |
|
Five crores fifteen lakhs seventy two |
|
|
thousand |
|
|
|
Thousand six hundered and forty eight |
REFERENCES:
- Government of India Ministry of Human Resource Development Bureau of Planning, Monitoring & Statistics New Delhi 2012: http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/SES-School_201011_0.pdf
- http://chdeducation.gov.in/r2i_dpi_sc.pdf
- http://schoolreportcards.in/SRC-New/SchoolDirectory/Directory.aspx; SCORE CARD GSSS-45; AS PER SRC_04011000402_2015-16.pdf
- Government of India Ministry of Human Resource Development Bureau of Planning, Monitoring & Statistics New Delhi 2012 : REPORT 2012 : http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/SES-School_201011_0.pdf
- Official website of Chandigarh Administration: school Education: http://www.chdeducation.gov.in/enrollment111.asp