Rural Education - Free Vs Paid Education

Let me put across my point a little differently covering a broader spectrum of education.

"Free Education is not compulsory and definitely not sufficient for a country".

I am not sure of other countries, but free (or subsidized education) is a smashing hit in India itself. However, this is only true for "Higher Education". Look at places like IIT, IIM, AIIMS, SPA etc. The success of these institutions is governed by following factors

1. maturity, intelligence and established commitment of students applying at these institutions, further ensured by strict screening tests, and

2. the strict governance (and monitoring of teachers) in these institutions

3. there is an immediate commercial (tangible) recognition for these highly educated youth, validating the quality of education and hence propelling best of the talents to flock these institutions.

Though a Indian senior scientists and an educational expert sitting on panel US universities recently pointed out some very serious (and qualified) flaws in the education at these premium institutions as well. However, I can possibly cover it in a separate article later.

Primary education unfortunately does not immediately ensure you a corner office. However, it equips you to receive quality higher education. Coupled with this lag in immediate return, it is difficult to motivate children in School even in urban India J.

You need well motivated parents and teachers to keep pushing children to ensure quality basic education. In my experience, paying a good fee is proving to be a good motivation for village parents to follow up on their children’s education. Once they see the difference, they don’t mind paying a premium for good education.

In summary, for primary education there are three main factors going against "free education",

1. scale is too large and a proper monitoring system for teachers is missing. Almost every single government teacher has an excuse of being busy with government census data collection and hence not being able to teach in school. Though their private tuitions usually flourish

2. Students come from different backgrounds and are usually not as self motivated as in higher education. This is also reflected in school drop out rates

3. The cost of providing primary education is much less and hence does not warrant large subsidy. Most parents in India can afford to pay for it, as far as they find enough value in it.

Current "free education regime", does not dissuade parents from patronizing private schools charging higher fees and at least making the children attend the school regularly (a lesser evil in case of rural India).

I also agree with Rohit, that the college education can be well funded through bank loans. It shall definitely reduce the subsidy burden on the government. That will also help reduce the criticism about students (IITians) receiving premium education at government cost and flying away abroad. Incidentally, we never heard a criticism of somebody studying in free government school and going abroad as wastage of national resources. In fact such a person will usually be praised as "An Example" by the press, social and political leaders alike.

An Option in Higher Education - In case of government run colleges, if somebody does go for higher education or lower paying jobs in India itself, there can be a provision for college to pay back these loans. Yale has a similar program, where they repay the loan if a student opts to join an NGO or "Not for Profit" companies. There can be some misuse of this scheme, but then we are doing 100% subsidization right now. So, no harm trying.

In private sector, we are witnessing many colleges charging very high fee, showcasing education loans options. Some people believe that it is bad, as many kids don't get jobs during recession. However, I think the students (and parents) opting for such options need to consider the pros and cons and take a calculated risk while going for expansive education.