Even as the government school system has proved a monumental failure with a steady exodus of children into private schools, in all 28 states and eight Union territories rents-seeking bureaucrats are tying up private school promoters and managements in red tape and nit-picking minutiae, writes Abhishree Choudhary, Bhavna Mundhra & Prisha Saxena

Private schools in India: not preserve of elite households

Although post-independence India’s infamous licence-permit-quota raj in industry substantially ended in 1991 with the landmark liberalisation and deregulation of the Indian economy, it is alive and kicking in Indian education, K-12 education in particular. Even as the public (government) school system has proved a monumental failure with a steady exodus of children into private schools, in all 28 states and eight Union territories rents-seeking bureaucrats are tying up private school promoters and managements in red tape and nit-picking minutiae.

For instance in the southern state of Karnataka (pop.69 million), over 1,000 private schools are under the guillotine for sundry charges ranging from adding new classes without official permission, levying unreasonable fees, teaching in the English medium and claiming to be CBSE/CISCE-affiliated schools pending approval of affiliation applications. On February 15, the state’s education ministry said that “criminal charges” will be filed against 1,316 ‘unauthorised’ private unaided schools for contravention of various provisions of the Karnataka Education Act 1983.