The case against privatisation of education - The Hindu

10th May 2014 - Link

This article debates whether higher education in India should be privatized or not.

Note: I have organised this article in form of arguments and counter arguments on the topic.

Arguments: Are arguments n points of those who demand privatisation of education

Counter- Arguments: Are counter arguments to those points(arguments) by the author.

Argument:

The supply of publicly provided professional education has not expanded commensurately with the growth in demand, thus signalling a failure.

Another associated argument - The government should cease regulating institutions that it does not fund.

Counter- Argument:

Educator's - performance actually determines the life chances of a very large number of individuals in society.

So they must be regulated like driving licenses and medical practices are regulated.

Argument:

Doctors and engineers, trained using the tax payer’s money, have now begun to enter politics.

Counter-Argument:

The answer to this malaise is surely not the privatization of professional education, but to expect that these youth in question serve in India, if not in the public sector itself, for a brief period after graduation, in lieu of which they repay the cost of their education.

Argument:

India’s regulatory agencies can be ham-handed in their interventions and are perceived to be corrupt.

That politicians influence the regulator to further the interests of private institutions owned by them or their clients.

Counter-Argument:

This deficit only provides an argument for drastically reforming how our regulatory bodies are populated and run rather than a case for dismantling them.

The most important reason for the state to remain in higher education is that the private sector is yet to demonstrate its capacity to create knowledge on a sufficient scale. Where is the research that creates knowledge? Even in these ‘professional’ courses there is more research in public institutions than in the private ones.

Reasons for greater knowledge creation in public institutions are

• They often have large government facilities attached to them.This enables the apprentice to learn by doing, arguably the best way to learn
• Underlying objective is not the pursuit of profit.

The private sector is not a presence much felt among the arts and sciences as these subjects do not always command high exchange value