Education plays an important role in our lives. It shapes and molds us to take on the challenges and opportunities coming our way and prepares us for life itself. Education defines our employability, income, standard of living, social status, and professional life. Hence, the demand for education in the world will always be high. 

Unfortunately, when the demand for education in post-independence India rose, the state and central governments lacked the resources to meet it. It lacked funds, resources, infrastructure, and teachers, which increased the cost of education, making it a luxury for people from different walks of life. And hence, the government encouraged individuals and organizations to establish colleges and deemed universities, resulting in the rise of many self-financed arts and science, engineering, and medical colleges. 

This helped in meeting the growing demand for education, and also the availability of education institutes increased the demand further, causing the institute to apply for additional seats to meet the ever-increasing demand for education. However, there are both negative and positive impacts of the privatization of the Indian education sector. 

How is the privatization of the Indian education sector impacting society? 

In a 2022 report by Statista, it was drawn that as of 2020, there were 1043 universities, 11,779 stand-alone institutes, and 42,343 colleges in India. 

Statistics published in LiveMint also suggest that the share of unaided private education institutes to the total number of education institutes has raised from 42.6% to 78.6% between 2001 to 2020. More than half of the institutes in India are privately owned and financed by private individuals. 

Positive Impact of Privatisation in the Indian Education Sector

In an over-populated country like India, privatization has helped reduce the gap between resources and made education accessible to all. A provider of education is a government responsibility, and a primary goal is to build a skillful population; without the availability of private higher education institutes, the government would have failed miserably at it.  

Also, since education requires more and more investment which may evade the fiscal power of the government, having private players in the industry helps them meet the growing demand for education and a variety of programs and courses. Economically speaking, privatization in the education sector of India has made a positive impact. 

Some of the few positives are: 

• Increased accessibility of education even in the remotest locations. 
• Decreased financial burden on state and central government. 
• Generation of employment and income opportunities to educate youth. 
• Teaching skills that are highly demanded in the current job market. 

Negative Impact of Privatisation in the Indian Education Sector

Although the privatization of the Indian education sector has relieved the government of its spending in the education sector, and the same cannot be said for the population. About 33.5% of respondents in the research responded privatization increased the cost of higher education. 

Private institutes are found to charge different fees to increase their income. Adding to the cause is systemic corruption in the government, allowing providing institutes to increase their fees, making higher education more and more unreachable to the poor and middle-income population. 

Quality of education is also under question, as most private education institutes are found to employ unqualified, inexperienced people based on caste, religion, and region. Inproficiencies such as poor language, subject, and character are very common in private institutes. 

Some of the few negatives are 

• Poor infrastructure facilities lack basic amenities such as clean drinking water, hygienic toilets, labs, hostel, dormitories, libraries, etc.
• Turned education into a business and profit-making commercial good in a materialistically-driven society. 
• Turned education into a restless service, wherein exams, classes, and tests are held during holidays. Assignments and projects are an addition to the quality of education but a customary process. 
• Cramming, assignments, and test writing do not give way to innovation and lifelong learning. 
• Bad academic environment due to lack of support and cooperation from the management, staff, non-teaching staff, and subordinates.  
• Partiality towards the students and favoritism are common in private education institutes. 

Concluding

There are both positives and negatives to privatization in the Indian education sector. The government’s initiative to promote privatization in higher education has helped increase access to education and was an economically viable option. But quality cannot be compromised in any way. It is important for the government to make strict rules about the infrastructure, facilities, staff, environment, accountability, results, and curriculum to ensure students get access to quality education and are growing vocationally, socially, mentally, and skill-wise.

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