Education in India

RTE (Right to Education) forces private schools to give 25% of the student seats to poor students from class 1 to VIII, effectively for free.
On paper, the government says that cost of these 25% students will be reimbursed directly to private schools; but, in reality, the refund amount is much less than the cost borne by private schools and even this amount is kept pending for many years with no interest penalty. So, for all practical purposes, private schools have to admit 25% of students for free.

Government school spends, on average, 3 times more on a student as compared to private school; yet, government schools quality of education is lower than private schools.
Government school enrollments are on the decline, while private school enrollments are on the rise.

Some wealthy parents get their child admitted to premium schools under RTE, by submitting fake certificates i.e. by claiming that their income is below Rs 1 lakh per annum in Maharashtra.

Private schools are subject to government checks regarding infrastructure, admission, etc. Heavy fines are levied on them by government for any lapse. For Public schools all rules exist only on paper; no penalties are ever levied on them. E.g.

• Nearly 10% of government public schools are run by a single teacher i.e. one teacher for whole school; no head-master, no peon, no attendant.
• 25% of teachers in government schools are absent on a typical day. 50% of teachers present, on a typical day, don't teach on that day because they are assigned other responsibilities.

To open a private school, many permissions are required from different government departments. Bribes are normal to avoid delays. E.g.

• The affiliation rule book for CBSE is 89 page thick and 50 different permissions are needed to set up a CBSE school.
• Permissions are needed from land office, fire-safety office, tax department, local muncipality, state education board, central education board, etc.
• The bribe for Essentiality certificate (justify the need of school in that area) is Rs 5 lakhs in Delhi in 2018.
• In Gujrat, the principle has to keep 70 pieces of paper up to date because the Inspector can come anytime.
• Many permissions have to be renewed every year. License Raj continues in education.

RTE has lead to increase in costs for 75% of students, with no increase in quality.
RTE has strengthened the "Inspector Raj" system; more bribes need to be paid regularly to government officials by private schools.
RTE is "political gimmick". The costs are borne by parents.
CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) of India has said that RTE is flawed and ineffective piece of legislation. CAG confirms that RTE has caused an increase in rules violation and corruption.
RTE has caused nearly 10% of schools to close

School with minority status are exempt from RTE. So the number of minority education institutes is increasing rapidly in India.

In global tests like PISA and TIMSS, which benchmark school students in various countries, India is near the bottom.

• Parents of children in private schools, on average, spend 24% of their household budget for primary education and 38% on secondary education.
• Parents after paying lakhs of rupees per year, cannot get quality education for their child.

Schooling is not learning; but RTE equates the two. For more information, please visit NISA

About 2 million students in USA are home-schooled. Poor education in India is causing many parents in India to home-school. Children are taught by tuition teachers. International home schools send video lectures and conduct tests on computer E.g. Sahal Kaushik is the youngest person to clear the competitive exam IIT JEE in India. Sahal never went to any school. He was home-schooled.
In India, home-schoolers generally give the NIOS exam for 10th standard directly and then study in college; they skip school entirely.