Education- a service or Business
From Education Service to Education Business: A Hard Look at India’s Learning Ecosystem
For decades after Independence, education in India was viewed as a social responsibility rather than a commercial transaction. It was understood as a public good—essential for social mobility, democratic participation, and national development. Teachers were respected not merely as employees but as custodians of knowledge, and institutions were seen as instruments of collective progress rather than individual profit.
Somewhere along the way, this moral framing has steadily eroded.
Today, education—particularly private education—has increasingly come to resemble a market product. Fees are structured, brands are positioned, campuses are marketed, and aspiration itself has been monetised. The language of service has been replaced by the language of pricing.
The recent public outrage over a Gurugram nursery school charging ₹1.24 lakh per quarter—nearly ₹3.7 lakh annually—for early childhood education was not about one institution alone. It exposed a broader, deeply unsettling reality: foundational education in India is becoming a luxury commodity.
When learning for toddlers begins to resemble a premium lifestyle expense, the system demands closer scrutiny.
When Did Learning Become a Commodity?
Legally, most private schools and colleges in India operate under charitable trusts or societies and are mandated to function on a non profit basis. In principle, education is expected to serve a public purpose. In practice, however, monetisation has found its way in through layered fee structures, reclassified charges, and opaque financial practices.
What cannot be charged openly is often recovered creatively.
Development fees, activity fees, technology fees, smart class fees, infrastructure charges—each individually defensible—together form a structure that continually escalates the cost of schooling without commensurate accountability.
Ironically, this escalation does not reliably translate into improved learning outcomes or better teaching conditions. While fees rise steadily, teacher remuneration and academic autonomy in many private institutions remain constrained.
The unavoidable question becomes: if education is being priced at a premium, who exactly benefits from the surplus?
The Broken Link Between Cost and Quality
In most sectors, rising prices at least promise enhanced quality. Education should be no different. The expectation is straightforward: higher fees should result in better faculty, stronger pedagogy, richer curricula, and improved academic outcomes.
Yet, across much of the Indian education landscape, this correlation remains weak.
Despite charging fees comparable to reputable institutions abroad, many schools and colleges struggle to demonstrate consistent academic excellence, meaningful research output, or innovative teaching practices beyond surface level digitisation.
At the higher education level, excellence remains concentrated in a small number of public institutions. The IITs, IISc, IIMs, AIIMS, and a limited group of central universities continue to bear the weight of national expectations. Their oversubscription reflects demand far exceeding supply.
For most students, access to quality education is determined not by potential alone, but by scarcity.
Exporting Students—and Exporting Capital
The logical response to domestic capacity constraints has been outward migration.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of Indian students leave the country for higher education. What began decades ago as a niche aspiration has now become a mainstream pathway for middle class households.
According to The Indian Express, Indian families are projected to spend USD 91 billion annually on overseas education by 2030, nearly double the USD 44 billion spent in 2024. By the end of the decade, more than 2.5 million Indian students are expected to be enrolled abroad.
In several destination countries, Indian students now form a significant proportion of the international student population, making education exports a critical revenue stream for foreign universities.
This trend is not simply cultural—it is structural.
Funding Foreign Universities With Indian Household Savings
What makes this phenomenon particularly troubling is its source of funding.
This massive outflow is not driven by state scholarships or public investment. It is overwhelmingly financed by households—through life savings, long term loans, asset sales, and remittance commitments spanning decades.
In 2024 alone, Indian families reportedly lost around USD 200 million (₹1,700 crore) to hidden bank fees and exchange rate mark ups while transferring education funds abroad.
India is not merely exporting students. It is exporting capital, talent, and future taxpayers—often without any structured return.
The Forgotten Asset: Underutilised Government Schools
Amid rising private fees and overseas migration, an uncomfortable paradox remains largely unaddressed.
India already possesses one of the largest public education infrastructures in the world. Government schools dominate in terms of land ownership, geographical reach, and physical footprint. Yet they remain severely underutilised.
In many regions, government school campuses include multiple buildings, playgrounds, assembly halls, and sports facilities. However, these spaces are typically active only for standard school hours and remain locked after dismissal and throughout vacations.
This is not scarcity. It is inefficiency.
Infrastructure Exists—Outcomes Do Not
It is true that many government schools lack modern laboratories, libraries, and digital infrastructure. However, this reality coexists with a striking underuse of physical assets that already exist.
Classrooms sit empty after school hours. Playgrounds see minimal structured use. Auditoriums remain closed except for ceremonial occasions.
Meanwhile, private institutions operating on far smaller plots routinely extract multiple infrastructure related fees.
The inconsistency is not in availability—but in intent and management.
Missed Opportunities for Academic Support
Underutilised government school campuses could easily be repurposed as centres for structured academic reinforcement.
After school remedial classes, bridge programmes, competitive exam preparation, digital literacy sessions, and foundational skill training could all operate within existing infrastructure—without disrupting formal school hours.
Instead, families are forced into an unregulated private tuition ecosystem, adding significantly to household expenditure while public resources remain dormant.
Physical Education: The Most Wasted Advantage
Perhaps the most overlooked opportunity lies in physical education.
At a time when childhood obesity, lifestyle disorders, screen addiction, and mental health challenges are rising, government schools possess one major advantage over their private counterparts: open space.
Structured sports training, physical conditioning, and fitness programmes could be conducted after school hours or during vacation periods, contributing to both physical and mental well being.
Yet in many cases, playgrounds remain symbolic rather than functional.
Conservatism, Not Constraint, Is the Barrier
Why does such evident potential remain unrealised?
The answer lies less in funding and more in administrative culture.
Public systems often equate activity with risk. Fear of audits, objections, and procedural scrutiny discourages initiative. Inaction becomes safer than innovation.
As a result, facilities remain locked, opportunities are deferred, and inefficiency becomes institutionalised.
Regulation Exists, but Loopholes Thrive
India does not lack educational regulations. Fee committees, statutory bodies, and judicial precedents exist in abundance. What is missing is swift and enforceable accountability.
Fee disputes are slow, retrospective, and often inconclusive. By the time decisions arrive, academic years are over and fees collected.
Regulation without consequences becomes negotiable paperwork.
This Is Not a Capability Problem
India’s challenge is not one of talent, language, or history.
It has a vast youth population, globally respected academics, and a long tradition of learning. What it lacks is institutional alignment between policy intent and operational reality.
Over regulation in public systems and under enforcement in private ones have distorted incentives across the ecosystem.
The Telling Contrast: Foreign Universities in India
Recent developments under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 demonstrate what is possible.
Foreign universities operating in India now offer globally recognised degrees without requiring students to leave the country—and often at a fraction of overseas cost.
This dispels the myth that world class education cannot exist domestically.
Reclaiming Education as Nation Building
Parents already understand what is happening.
Fees are rising faster than incomes. Education is increasingly priced as a status marker. Returns are uncertain and delayed.
India now faces a choice: continue along a path where aspiration is monetised—or consciously reclaim education as nation building infrastructure.
This requires enforceable regulation, transparent fee structures, full utilisation of public assets, genuine investment in faculty and research, and autonomy coupled with accountability.
Until then, profit oriented classrooms will multiply—and airport departure lounges will remain crowded with young Indians searching elsewhere for what should have been available at home.
And the question policymakers must finally confront is this:
Why should Indian families spend USD 91 billion abroad by 2030, when that same investment could have built dozens of world class institutions within India itself?
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