Hyderabad: Private schools are thriving only due to the negligence of state governments towards the public education system. In the name of quality education, private schools are fleecing parents, especially from the lower income group who join their kids in private school instead of government schools.
These are the findings of a joint research by academics from the US and India including Prof. Carol Anne Spreen from New York University, Prof .Sangeetha Kamat from University of Massachusetts and Indivar Jonnalagadda with the help of Education International group and teacher unions from both Telugu speaking states.
Prof. Kamat said political choices and market opportunities have led to a continued growth of for profit fee charging schools targeting poor communities.
Prof. Spreen stated that the survey was done from August to December 2015 in various schools in the Old City.
Angelo Gavrielatos and Shashi Bala Singh from Education International stated that they wold be conducting similar studies in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and other states.
The report finds serious violations of RTE Act. Many of these schools adopted several cost-cutting measures such as employing unqualified teachers who are paid very low wages, from Rs 2,000- Rs 5,000 and operate from low-cost residential buildings with cramped rooms with no open spaces.
The report faulted the memorandum of understanding between the Andhra Pradesh government and Bridge International Academies in which the government had outsourced a number of its schools.
