National Independent Schools Alliance, an initiative of Centre for Civil Society, held its second annual School Leaders Summit (SLS) at India International Centre, New Delhi on 26 September 2013.
Over 150 budget private school leaders, educationists, researchers, investors, school principals and proprietors came together at the IIC to examine the role of budget private schools in the education space, and to share and explore opportunities and innovative practices to improve quality of schooling and student performance.
Honorable Member of Parliament Sh. Madhu Goud Yaskhi was the Chief Guest for the summit. Sh. Yaskhi who is currently serving on the Standing Committee for Human Resource Development, addressed the gathering and said that there is no mechanism to work out a balance between the population and schools set up by the government. He went to state that “if the government can give concessions, land to businesses, it can also support low-fee schools for poor kids.” However, one cannot rule out government schools completely.
Kulbhushan Sharma, Vice President of NISA introduced NISA and explained the genesis of the alliance. He then set the tone for the event by highlighting the importance of budget private schools and parental choice in education, saying that low budget private schools are dealing with a lot of problems, and it is becoming difficult for them to operate. “NISA is that platform that will enable children to receive good education in low fee private schools.” Many surveys show that the quality of education is much better in low-fee private schools; government, however, does acknowledge the quality of education in such schools especially when every parent is ready to spend 50% or more of his income in educating their children.
This was followed by four panel discussions, where eminent practitioners, researchers and school owners shared their valuable insights with the delegates.
The panel on Barriers to the Choice of Education was chaired by Amit Kaushik, former Managing Director at Educomp. The panel hosted R Sridhar, Managing Director of Educational Initiatives who said that it is unfortunate that private schools do not enjoy government support. Prof. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, Professor of Education Economics and International Development at London University then took the stage to discuss the status of budget private schools vis-a-vis the government schools. Through research she stated that the quality of education in budget private schools is much better. R C Jain, President of NISA, and Delhi State Public Schools Management Association highlighted the tension between teachers who could teach better and those who have a a B.Ed certificate. This is forcing schools to hire teachers who are qualified but can’t teach. Tejpal Singh, Secretary General of the Punjab Private Schools Organisation and NISA State Representative from Punjab concluded that RTE has a lot of unfavorable implications on low-fee private schools. The SSA should have completed in 2020. Now, it will go on till 2030. The government gives itself 75 years to educate the nation, it gives private schools 3 years to comply with the RTE which is an unfair proposition.
The next discussion was on School Leadership Training- Chaired by Azad Oomen, CSF. Aditya Natraj, Founder Director of Kaivalya Education Foundation who has been working in the field of leadership development said “This is not a budget school versus public school debate- it's a war on quality". Mohammed Anwar, Managing Director of Empathy Learning Systems Pvt Ltd, an organisation he co-founded with Professor James Tooley gave his insights, saying that "We need to have a clear vision for our work and clear standards to judge the outcomes".
A lunch break was followed by a session on Running of Great Low Fee Private Schools chaired by Amitav Virmani, Country Director for Absolute Return for Kids (ARK). Amitav Virmani questioned the pillars necessary for a good education. On the panel, Siddharth Ajith who manages new initiatives at Gray Matters India provided the viewpoint of a researcher and said "we are moving towards a system where there are personalised pathways to learning for students, however while that is a vision for the future, we can begin by having student-centric teaching today”. Shiladitya Ghoshof XSEED talked about his experiences and Ashok Thakur, Founder of Muni International School gave an overview of the running of his school.
The last session of the day was one on School Financing Models where Harsh Shrivastava, COO at Centre for Civil Society chaired the session, with Lokesh Gupta of Spice Investment Fund and Neeraj Sharma, CEO of Indian School Finance Company on the panel. They discussed that equity investment was difficult because it was difficult to find an exit for a school, which was not a company that could list on the stock market. So, a hybrid model that looked at cashflows might be needed. Lending was also a risky business. Banks often found it difficult to lend because they were not sure if they could actually shut down the school or sell of part of it, whichever their collateral was. Private lenders were there, but they would charge higher interest rates, which school promoters might find difficult to pay. Yet, models needed to be found that were profitable for both lender and borrower of a low-fee school and that ensured timely disbursals.
Delegates got the opportunity not only to gain insight and interact with the esteemed panelists, but also had the chance to network with a diverse cross-section of individuals in the education space and share their learnings. Service Providers also got the space to showcase and test the validity of their innovative practices.
The summit served as an important step in helping the National Independent Schools Alliance achieve its dual aim of strengthening advocacy efforts for budget private schools with the government, amplifying the voice of these schools that currently face closure in the face of Right to Education norms for school recognition; and improving the quality of schooling and student performance in these schools.
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