Daily Times

From my interviews with private school owners, I have come to the conclusion that there is a dire need to regulate these organisations. Even the owners believe that rules and guidelines are needed that are both reasonable and rational; and are set by the appropriate government regulatory body — as is the case in any service sector.

However, they believe that addressing the safety and well-being of the students, and making sure that the schools meet a certain minimum academic standard — which can be measured by its student’s performances on independent standardised tests. This could include the Matriculation examinations, O or A-levels, Agha Khan Board examinations or those set by any other internationally recognised board like the International Baccalaureate.

The rules and guidelines set by the regulatory body should not be directed solely towards lowering fees, as this could have an adverse impact on the quality of private education. Nor for that matter should government regulatory bodies mandate what salaries these institutions pay, as long as they meet the minimum wage standards set by the government.

The essential question of the state regulating the fee and salary structures of private schools is only an issue today because government schools, tasked with the responsibility of providing reasonable universal education to all citizens, have not met that responsibility since this country was founded.

That is the primary reason the focus of the government and the public is on the cost of private education. They want the quality private schools offer, without having to pay for it. The fact that while removing market forces and artificially controlling pricing and hiring may make private education more accessible, it will also significantly impact the quality of education private schools now offer and lower that standard to the lowest common denominator is ignored.

Private school will have to compensate for these caps and artificial, and non-market force caps by increasing the number of students in each class, reducing the number of teachers to cut costs and also lower the quality of services offered. For example, state of the art IT facilities will become a thing of the past, sports grounds will be replaced by classrooms to make rent more affordable, air conditioning will be turned off to reduce electricity costs and so on.

Those running private schools are of the opinion that by allowing government regulatory authorities to enforce their regulations, efficiently run enterprises offering a quality service will be brought into the dysfunctional bureaucratic structure. As a consequence, private schools will be no different than government schools in terms of quality of education.

This would be the same quality that forced parents to send children to private schools in the first place. It should not be forgotten here that there are many countries where parents are quite happy to send their children to government schools, even in developing countries like Sri Lanka. The only responsibility of private schools is to provide quality education for the set fee — while ensuring that the parents aren’t charged any hidden costs.

But schools do have a responsibility to not take advantage of students and parents. Starting with a low fee structure and arbitrarily increasing fees once parents have committed to that school is not an acceptable practice.

For that purpose, the fee increase should only happen once a year, and the percentage the school intends to increase fees annually should be given to the parents in writing at the time of admission. Any increase beyond that should need approval from the appropriate regulating authority and parent body.

By allowing government regulatory authorities to enforce their regulations, efficiently run enterprises offering a quality service will be brought into the dysfunctional bureaucratic structure

In other words, parents should know what the tuition and admission fees are going to be, what fee increase they can expect over the years and what they are going to get in return in terms of facilities and standards before they accept an offer of admission. Parents will then be in a position to make a clear, honest choice as to whether they want, and can afford that particular private school or if they would rather opt for another, less expensive private school or even a government school for that matter.

In the meantime, the government’s focus should be on addressing the real issue; improving the public education system. If the state fulfilled that responsibility and provided quality education at public schools, it would eliminate the need for private schools and give students and parents a choice worth having.

The writer is an educationist

Published in Daily Times, May 9^th 2018.