The Covid-19 pandemic has devastated all sectors of the economy and upended the lives of families and households countrywide. Its impact especially on the education sector has been especially hard – it has severely disrupted the education of India’s 256 million school-going children with 1.5 million schools countrywide shuttered since mid-March.

While the country’s 1.2 million government schools are still devising ways and means to provide remote learning to their children, most of the country’s 375,000 recognised private schools and estimated 400,000 private budget schools are providing some form of online education to children. However with the pandemic having caused mass layoffs and job losses, thousands of parents are experiencing great difficulty in paying children’s tuition fees. The result is that most private — especially private budget schools — have not received fees for over five months (March-July). This has jeopardized the jobs of over 2 million teachers and endangered the education of almost 100 million children.

In this connection, it’s important to note that according to a recent report on the private education sector by the Central Square Foundation, over 70 percent of India’s private schools charge less than Rs.1,000 per month and 40 percent less than Rs.500.  Unfortunately the economic distress of parents is so intense that they are not able to pay even these paltry tuition fee amounts.

To ensure the learning continuity of 100 million children enrolled in private budget schools and protect the jobs and livelihoods of 2 million teachers, EducationWorld and the Telangana Parents Association for Child Rights and Safety have launched a national campaign to petition the Central government to initially endow a Covid-19 Action & Relief Fund for Education (CARE) with a sum of Rs.2,000 crore – equivalent to 1 percent of the Prime Minister’s economy stimulus package announced on May 12.  An equivalent amount should be solicited from the public for pay-in to the CARE corpus to be maintained by the newly renamed Union Education Ministry or its designated nominee. Pay-outs by way of education vouchers from this fund will enable low-income household parents to ensure learning continuity for their children. We invite parents, schools and teachers associations across the country to sign this petition which will be presented to the Prime Minister’s Office on August 15.

We demand that the Central government:

• Endow a Covid-19 Action & Relief Fund for Education (CARE) with a sum of Rs.2,000 crore – equivalent to 1 percent of the Prime Minister’s economy stimulus package announced on May 12
• An equivalent amount (INR 2000 crores) should be solicited from the public for pay-in to the CARE corpus to be maintained by the newly renamed Union Education Ministry or its designated nominee
• Introduce Education Vouchers (from CARE fund) for parents of low-income households for the academic year 2020-21
• These vouchers can vary from Rs.500-1,000 per month depending on fees charged by their children’s school
• Education vouchers to be enchased only by school managements
• Education vouchers should be given to all parents of low-income households including those whose children are enrolled in government schools who can use the vouchers to admit children in schools of their choice.
• Education vouchers can be disbursed to parents using the Aadhar identification system
• Most countries including the US and Australia have announced massive bailout and support packages for schools. India has not allocated any amount in its Rs.20 lakh crore Covid-19 economy stimulus package for education. Education vouchers for financially distressed parents are a great opportunity to enable them to ensure the learning continuity of children and contribute to nation building.

LEND YOUR SUPPORT TO THE CARE CAMPAIGN BY SIGNING THIS PETITION