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The Trade of Education

Once there was a dearth for educational institutions in India and those who enter the portals of these institutions justified it by their brilliance and the institutions also stood out because of their academic excellence. This applies to both schools and colleges.

With the ever growing Indian population, the schools and colleges (arts, science and engineering) were not sufficient to meet the demands of the public and naturally permission was awarded to open more schools and colleges by the private enterprises. In the real sense this turned out to be a benefit to many aspiring Indian population which was thirsting for better and quality education. Many private schools and colleges appeared in the field vying with one another for providing good quality education both in the starting and higher levels.

When demands turn more the tendency to exploit by the suppliers insidiously enters. The Indian system also carries enough loop holes and the officials who sit there are prone to temptations and corruption crept in slowly. Therefore, more especially in the South and particularly in Tamil Nadu, many engineering colleges cropped up with hosts of public making beeline for entry. Number of colleges acquired deemed university status too which gave them full freedom to do and offer whatever they prefer.

The bane of India is, most of the time the extraordinary freedom given will promote ample scope for misuse and it is diligently done. So we have started having scams in the educational institutions like fleecing the public through enormous sums of money as capitation fee and manufacturing unemployable graduates. Adding to this, the several north Indian students started acting as agents for the colleges in south and group clashes have started erupting and the most shocking one was the recent murder of a student from one particular deemed university. The students, who are supposed to concentrate more on their education, started behaving like money making middle men and this has led to professional rivalry to the extent of fisticuffs and murder. Millions of rupees in cash and luxurious properties have been unearthed by income tax sleuths during the recent raids in some of the private engineering college premises.

In this miserable scenario, the Tamil Nadu government has suddenly woke up and put forth a rule to control the fee in private schools and the schools in turn try to reflect it on their pay to teachers. Many schools are already paying very low salaries for the teachers and this rule provided them a safe handle for them to hit the already meagerly paid teachers.

This interference by the government in the education system is definitely going to have impact on the quality of education. It is well known that popular private schools demand more fees but at the same time the management and the teaching staff see to it that the students are well equipped to face the exams. Notwithstanding the exorbitant fee collected from the students, many private schools do not pay well their teaching staff. With this type of judgment, it may further deteriorate and the immediate impact will be on the teachers’ salaries. The teaching job already carries the least preference among the public and with this even those who are interested in teaching will try to avoid the job since the job demands more duties for less pay.
 
None can buy intelligence and character through money. Ultimately, the concept of education has turned out to be a misnomer and this noble area has also run into the variegated deceptions of trade.

More By  :  G Swaminathan

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