CONVERT ALL GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS INTO GOVERNMENT AIDED PRIVATE SCHOOLS IN TAMIL NADU

As the next academic year will commence shortly, as a person interacting with several poor families in Tamil Nadu , I feel highly concerned about the plight of the poor families , who are keen to provide best possible education to their children.

It is a happy note that many poor families , particularly the mothers, clearly understand that their children will be well rewarded by providing them quality education, which will enable them to get good jobs or set up their own profession in the long run and improve their economic and social standards. Such desire is all the more so in the case of girl children , as parents and particularly mothers realize that the girls should stand on their own legs to protect their interests in life by getting good education and job, as the number of men folks taking to liquor habits is increasing rapidly in Tamil Nadu. Certainly, women in Tamil Nadu suffer from sense of fear about their safety , as several husbands become liquor addicts and beat and harass the womenfolk.
Government of Tamil Nadu is spending several crores of rupees every year in running the government schools and providing several freebies to the students in government schools , such as free text books, uniforms, noon meal etc. apart from nil or low fees. However, the main problem in government schools today is the lack of quality education imparted to the students, due to indiscipline, particularly amongst the teachers who resort to strike and agitation and develop trade union interests and political affiliations. Misbehaviour of teachers towards the girl children in government schools are increasingly reported, apart from the incidents of teachers attending classes in drunken conditions.

With students in government schools mostly hailing from poor families and with stressful conditions in the homes, indiscipline amongst students are also seen often.

Given such conditions, the poor families want to send their children to the private schools, where the quality of education imparted and the discipline level maintained is certainly much better than the government schools.

Unfortunately, most of the private schools are now run by business houses and politicians under the banner of “Trust”, with profit motive. Exhorbitant fees are charged , which poor families cannot afford to pay. Anxious to give good education to the children , many poor families run from pillar to post to find money to pay for education in private schools and many of them fall into debt trap.

The only way to solve this problem is to improve the quality of education in government schools. We have been talking about this for several years but no visible changes for improvement have taken place. Almost everyone seem to be of the view that any expectation that the performance of the government schools would improve is like chasing a shadow.
One ideal arrangement would be to convert all government schools into government aided private schools , as some sort of joint venture between government and private institutions. The fees should be nil or low and the facilities for the students should be extended in the same way as it is being done now in government schools.

Crores of rupees spent by government in running the government schools now can be used to provide aid to the government funded private schools. With private participation , there can certainly be better prospects for improving the standards and providing affordable education to the poor families.

Of course, politicians will try to play mischief in this scheme also by entering into the field.

A system and procedure must be developed to ensure that the private partners in these schools would be strictly chosen on the basis of their merit and qualification.

N.S.Venkataraman more