ASER Report: Increasing dependence on private institutions

Private Schooling

The report shows that more children in the age group of 6-14 are going to private schools than ever before. The figures have increased by 2.5% from 2009 to 24.3% in 2010. In 2005, it was 16.3% nationally.

• The southern states show considerable rise over the last . For the same age group of 6-14, enrollment in private schools has increased from 29.7% to 36.1% in Andhra Pradesh, from 19.7% to 25.1% in Tamil Nadu, from 16.8% to 20% in Karnataka and from 51.5% to 54.2% in Kerala. Among other states, Punjab shows an increase from 30.5% to 38%.
• Private school enrollment for the same age group is low in Bihar (5.2%), West Bengal (5.9%), Jharkhand (8.8%), Orissa (5.4%) and Tripura (2.8%).

While the ASER reports finds the above, a very interesting trend in the country is the opening up of multiple chain schools with plans to open up 100 and above branches in the country. Many of these schools will be opened up in Tier 2- Tier 4 cities. Many of these cities are in close proximity to rural areas. But, not many of these schools are proposed in Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa or Tripura. Most the schools are being planned in states which are relatively more prosperous. This phenomenon has an interesting consequence as you will read below.

Private Tuitions

• Nationally, there is not much change between 2009 and 2010 in the proportion of children who are enrolled in government schools and also take extra paid tuition classes. However there is a marked drop in the incidence of tuition among children enrolled in private schools across all classes till Std VIII.
• State like Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa have very low private school enrollments but high proportions of children enrolled in government schools who also take tuition classes e.g.  in 2010, in West Bengal 75.6% of Std V children enrolled in government schools take tuition classes. This number for Bihar is 55.5% and 49.9% for Orissa. This seems like a very clear indicator for lack of high quality private institutions in these states.

So, the inferences are:

• People are very clearly moving away from government provided education, to the privately provided
• If they are unable to locate good enough private funded schools, then they get their children to take private tuitions