Private schools lead the way

Bengaluru: While several government schools are on the verge of closure for want of students in Karnataka , private schools seem to be thriving.  Not only is enrolment up in private schools in rural areas of the state, but their students are doing better in maths and languages than their counterparts  in government schools,  going by Pratham’s Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) for rural Karnataka, 2012.
Enrolment in private schools in southern India, including Karnataka, is now over 40 per cent as against  20 per cent in 2008, with  students from mainly classes between II and VIII joining private institutes, the report says.
Private school students can read even Kannada better than their government school counterparts, it reveals, also dwelling on the growing trend of  students both from government and private schools opting for tuitions. The performance of those who received tuition  in both languages and mathematics. was better than those who did not.
The ASER report has not come as a complete surprise to the education department as it was aware of these trends already, claim its officers. “We today have more CBSE schools even in the semi- urban areas of the state and  were forced to  start merging government schools because of the poor demand for them. If the trend continues a little longer , more than half  the existing government schools will close. This year we were expecting the worst for state-run schools as 49,000 free seats are now available  in private schools to the poor  under the Right to Education (RTE) Act. This could lead to a  shortage of students in a few more hundred government schools,” says one officer.
 Academicians says the ASER report should come as a wake-up call to government schools, which clearly need to improve their performance with some urgency if they hope to draw and retain more students. “The government has good buildings, play areas and experienced teachers in its schools, but parents are  still opting for the private schools which charge them a bomb. Its time it did some introspection,” says Mr. Rajath Shastri R, a researcher, who has studied the subject.