In the thick of the unprecedented economic disruption following the ongoing national lockdown prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic, India’s powerful 20 million strong politician-bureaucrat brotherhood steeped in socialist dogma, seems to have discerned an opportunity to deliver a hammer blow to private education – Dilip Thakore The country’s 375,000 private unaided schools, an estimated 400,000 budget private schools (BPS) and 300,000 private pre-primaries which provide superior education to over 50 percent of India’s 260 million inschool children, are suffering severe institutional stress and are being pushed to the edge of bankruptcy. Post-independence India’s establishment including the powerful 20 million strong neta-babu brotherhood steeped in socialist dogma has never acknowledged the massive nation-building contribution of private schools, colleges and universities. Now in the thick of the unprecedented economic disruption following the 68-day national lockdown prompted by the novel coronavirus (aka Covid-19) pandemic, it seems to have discerned an opportunity to deliver a hammer blow to private education. In particular to BPS which have emerged as formidable competitors of the country’s 1.20 million government schools. State governments across the country have issued a spate of notifications and circulars ordering private school managements to waive or defer tuition fees for the March- June quarter. Coterminously, school managements are directed to continue to pay salaries and emoluments of their teachers and support staff. School promoters, principals and managements who fail to comply are being threatened with prosecution under several provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. With parents of school-going children encouraged to breach their contract to pay their children’s school fees by confusing government notifications, and public sector banks reluctant to provide credit, a large and growing number of private schools — especially budget private schools — are laying off teachers and staff and contemplating closure. “Although MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) and agriculture have been given stimulus packages and interest payment moratoriums by government and nationalised banks, education is the only sector which has not been given any relief for the damage and loss it has suffered for having to shut down schools and all institutions for over three months following outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. On the contrary, parents are being advised by the state government not to pay tuition fees despite private schools switching to providing online education. Thus far, this, our member schools have continued to pay teachers and staff salaries. But with only 50-60 percent of parents paying their children’s fees, we are struggling to stay afloat. If schools are forced to remain shut for another three months, 60-70 percent of our member institutions will have to fire teachers and staff and close down permanently,” warns M. Srinivasan, president of the Management of Independent CBSE Schools Association (Karnataka) which has a membership of 130 schools with an aggregate enrolment of 2.5 lakh children. An alumnus of Mysore and Connecticut (USA) universities and founder-principal of the Gifted Education and Research (GEAR) Innovative International School, Bangalore (estb.1995), Srinivasan says that notifications and advisories issued by the Karnataka government to schools…
