Our Petition
Petitioning Prime Minister of India, Mr Narendra Modi
New Education Policy: Please adopt School Voucher System to provide quality education to all the poor children of India
U.K., the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Colombia, New Zealand, Chile, Ireland, Sweden, USA etc have adopted Voucher System.
India also needs the School Voucher System for EWS children
1. A viable solution for providing equitable and quality education to all the poor children is the School Voucher System which can be implemented under government's Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT)
The central government's initiative of changing the mechanism of transferring gas subsidy directly to the consumer (poor citizen of India) in his bank account using Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) has yielded unprecedented positive results. It has increased the efficiency of the subsidy and visibility of government's help to the common man while at the same time reducing the magnitude of corruption.
Similarly, the beneficial potential of any mechanism is at its best when it is transparent, well targeted, and suitably designed for practical implementation.
A school Voucher System is analogous to a gas-subsidy which benefits the consumer directly. Only the direct transfer of benefit in the form of an 'education voucher' to the poorest children of our country can ensure that 'no child is left behind' in the quest for achieving social justice through universal and equitable quality education. The school Voucher system can also become the basis of implementation of all laws pertaining to subsidy of education of all the children of India.
2. Fund Students, not schools under the School Voucher System using Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mechanism to ensure equity and quality
The basic idea of an education voucher is that the government will fund students instead of schools and that the voucher (monetary entitlement) would get paid by the Economically Weaker Section parent to whichever school he chooses for his child. Under this system, the government can give each eligible parent of Economically Weaker Section, a ‘voucher’ with a specified monetary value which the parent can present at any private school for education. The school can encash its accumulated vouchers at any scheduled bank. The advantage of School Voucher System is that it promises to provide the poorest and the most disadvantaged sections of society with the same set of choices available to their economically better-off counterparts thereby promoting equity and social inclusion in a major way. Also, the government should not subsidise the middle and rich classes who are already sending their children to private schools on their own.
3. Budget allocation and funding for the School Voucher System
It has been proven through research that the average per pupil expenditure in a government school in India is 4 to 5 times the average per pupil expenditure in a private school. The Per Pupil Expenditure of government schools by state is given below for 8 states of India. If the government allots a fraction of the per pupil expenditure in a government school for awarding voucher to the parent of a poor child, every EWS parent will get a choice to enrol his child to his choice of private school. The value of the voucher can differ according to the per pupil expenditure in different states.
Per pupil expenditure per year in Government schools for 8 states 2014-15
- 1. Odisha - Rs 11,448/- per pupil per year
- 2. Uttar Pradesh - Rs 17,101/- per pupil per year
- 3. Tamil Nadu - Rs 32,340/- per pupil per year
- 4. Bihar - Rs 23,307/- per pupil per year
- 5. Gujarat - Rs 42,558/- per pupil per year
- 6. Kerala - Rs 42,170/- per pupil per year
- 7. Madhya Pradesh - Rs 13,747/- per pupil per year
- 8. Punjab- Rs 17,158/- per pupil per year
Column average - Rs 24,979/- per pupil per year
Source for the above data: Per pupil expenditure estimates are based on Revised Estimates of Elementary Education budget (revenue expenditure only) of 2014-15 for govt. schools only (i.e. excludes aided schools) collected from individual state budget documents, plus SarvaShikshaAbhiyan expenditures but not mid-day meal expenditures; enrolment numbers from DISE available at www.dise.in
4. The School Voucher System will develop competition among private schools to improve quality of education
A school voucher puts purchasing power in the hands of every parent, thereby providing the right incentives for private schools to not only improve upon the quality of education in order to attract enrolment but also to prevent drop outs (since the voucher money goes with the child). Therefore, private schools will have the right incentives to hire the best teachers, hold them accountable and be responsive to parents' need.
5. School Voucher System reduces the monitoring efforts by the Government machinery
A major advantage of the voucher system is that the government administrative machinery does not need to do much monitoring of the system to ensure school and teacher accountability, since effectively, parents do the monitoring, penalizing the non-performing schools by abandoning them and taking the (voucher) funding with them. This is a major advantage in India where it is impossible to monitor 15 lakh schools.
6. School Voucher System encourages new private schools to come up in even in village and rural areas where such schools do not exist
In areas where there are no private schools, the provision of government funding usually leads to a supply response, i.e. private schools tend to get set up. Apart from promoting parental school choice, this also generates new employment. Thus, a voucher system would greatly stimulate investment by the private sector in quality school education for the poor because of the greater security of a revenue stream under the voucher system.
7. The Central Government's initiative of inviting opinion of common man at the grassroot level for formulation of the New Education Policy is praiseworthy
For the first time in the history of independent India, the 65 years' quest of people of India, specially of those 80% residing in villages, for Quality Education for every child saw hopes of fulfillment when the Central Government recently took villages, districts and cities under consideration and asked for the opinion of people at the grassroot level on formulation of a New Education Policy.
The opinion of the common man is clear. Even a labourer, who earns his daily wages by toiling hard day and night, wants quality education for his children. In this pursuit, he prefers to send his children to a fee-charging private school to provide quality education to his ward rather than sending him to a free-of-cost government school (even with all the inducements of mid-day meals, free uniforms, free books etc).
8. You have aspired to provide Quality Education to all the children of India in your recent address at the launch of 'Start-up India' initiative
Your honourable self, in a recent talk at the launch of 'Start-up India' initiative, aspired to impart QUALITY EDUCATION in place of just EDUCATION to every Indian child even in villages, nondescript, far flung and underdeveloped areas rather than to only those handful of privileged children residing in big cities of the country. The School Voucher System is the most promising way of fulfilling your aspiration of providing every EWS and disadvantaged child of India with Quality Education. This system is successfully running in a lot of countries like United Kingdom, USA, Chile, Ireland, Sweden, Colombia, the Netherlands, New Zealand etc to provide quality education to poor children.
Conclusion
There is a strong case for introducing a school voucher system in India. Innovative public-private partnership (PPP) is required so as to allow many private as well as non- profit organizations to enter the field to provide quality education to the millions of poor children. The present trend of growth in unaided private schools needs to be converted into an opportunity to reach out to poor with quality education. The voucher system can be an instrument, can reduce segregation as well as provide access to quality education. The poor deserve better deal and equal partnership in development process of resurgent India where they are to play a major role. The model of School Voucher System presented can be an important step in that direction.
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posted by -
Yogesh Kapoor
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Reply
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posted by -
Anirudh Singh
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