School Education Vs. Higher Education
October 13th, 2007
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By any yardstick, primary education is a fundamental right while higher education is a privilege. While a case could be made that higher education is beneficial to the society at large, primary education must be a greater priority. It is an illustration of India’s governance failure that exactly the opposite is true in India. As UNESCO’s new Global education digest says,
Families in India have to spend more on primary school education of their children, making the fundamental right to basic education for the Indian poor a distant dream, according to a recent UNESCO report.
In contrast, university education, which typically helps the better off students, remains subsidised and costs just the half of the primary school spending.
“Households pay for more than one-quarter, 28 per cent, of the costs to send their children to primary and secondary school. These fees pose a very real barrier for the children of poor families,” the report ‘Global Education Digest 2007′, released by UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), said.
“Yet at the same time, households assume just 14 per cent of the costs for university education, which typically benefits better off students,” it added.[link]
The U.G.C has lately talked of ensuring at least 20% of the total cost of higher education is recovered from the students. Even that modest goal has faced resistance from the university authorities. Perhaps, it is just another manifestation of the culture of entitlement.
Full UNESCO report is available here. (PDF)
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