Comments on: Education Business in India – A Free Market Solution?

By: Domestic Avalanche

Domestic Avalanche — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:09:39 +0000

@Tony –

“There are only a fixed number of seats.”

Exactly! Now the current managements have a monopoly on the education. Free market will wither under monopolies. Free market can work only with competition. Hence there have to be enough and more seats than there are students. That way, only the reasonable managements get the business (that is students) At that point reputation will matter because if you donot focus on that, people will go elsewhere.

Also, student fees is the only revenue source now a days. That has to change too. I will talk about that later in the week since now I am preparing what I promised you before.

By: Tony Jose

Tony Jose — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:01:45 +0000

We encouraged privitization, what happend is that they joined together, as a group similar to Bilderberg, and they are working against the people and the govt. They know the loop holes in law. And they have the best advocates. They are very confident of their powers. They have political hold and muscle power. Everybody knows about it. We do have so called regulations. But the regualtions regulated by this group. They bribes authorities. And it is like a paralell totalitarian group which decides the policy. The commission regulated the fees for Engineering as Rs.36000 per semester which includes fees for everything. The college where i studied demanded us to pay Rs. 48,000. Everybody paid it. The regulations has nothing to do with this group. The govt is helpless so do the people are.

The scholarship system you suggested is obviously good. But it is not going work in here. There are only a fixed number of seats. If a management decides to give scholarships, they get the least money out of the group. They might get brilliant students. But they will ofcourse loose money. In Kerala, this is strictly business. A business running for profit, not for reputation.

What I suggest is an international open university, a model University like BITS, MIT. Where we choose only the elite, whether it is a teacher or students. And about the running cost, we have to discuss.

By: Domestic Avalanche

Domestic Avalanche — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:58:02 +0000

I agree with Kenney. Many a time, base education is sufficient. However, if it is found to be needing, one would need to think about bridge courses to repair that defect.

However, moving on to my subject of discussion, the realm of professional education, the quality is a total different animal. I agree and disagree with Sachin. There is no need of a ‘tight’ regulation by the government, it will prove to be counterproductive. However, a tight quality control would be welcome and should be a priority.

Coming to Nomad’s opinion, I think we can increase quality by encouraging commercialization rather than discouraging it. I will discuss how commercialization and quality goes hand in hand if and even if the sole goal of the management is making profits.

By: Sachin

Sachin — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 04:13:36 +0000

In a survey done by Readers Digest, 70% of the Indians said they are ready to relocate completely to USA, if given an opportunity. It was the world’s highest in any region across the world. After seeing that I was thinking why we need free public education. Maybe people will send valuable foreign currency to take care of the parents (at least) here, and help Govt. of India in that way.

The privatization of educational system is good, as long as it is tightly regulated. Also we should not get rid of the public system. There is and attempt to bring quality control through NBA and NAC. As a young system it has miles to reach some basic maturity.

By: The Nomad

The Nomad — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:00:02 +0000

You should understand that Kerala has a comparitively good basic education system. The college education system is perhaps what undoes this. But IMHO, US still has the world’s best education system. One closer look would reveal how radically different and efficient US university system is. We largely churn out defective manpower becoz our degree/college system is our Achilles’ heel. I put forward the following points:

1. In the US, one would find the Academia in harmony with the practical world which tend to senstize the students towards the various nuances of the industry- something which is completely absent here.

2. They research out there. Here research is a concept almost unheard of (unless u r talking of the IITs or IISc)

3. US colleges seldom see the ‘business’ part in education which is completely opposite to what we have in India- business overshadows education at any cost.

My own feeling is that unless the commercialization is taken outta Indian education system, we would continue to supply people who cannot stand on their own two feet. My two (or 3) cents here!

By: Kenney Jacob

Kenney Jacob — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:18:03 +0000

@Rosemary
What you have said is very true. The post here is mainly aimed at education after school. If you are in Kerala you will understand this post much better.

By: Rosemary Ambale

Rosemary Ambale — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 03:59:58 +0000

I teach at a business management college. I do think education in India has become big business. But what is needed is not more colleges but better primary and secondary level schooling. Students come to urban colleges with such a poor base that they tend to become very easily satisfied consumers, with the result that the standards of colleges deteriorates. To have better higher education, we must start with excellent base work.