Life, it is said, is full of choices. And a good, functioning democracy is supposed to guarantee its citizens, an opportunity to exercise these choices, freely and fearlessly. Hence it is ironical that in the world’s largest democracy, there is very little choice available on an issue that is possibly closest to the hearts of most people and one of core importance to society.
On matters of school education, Indian parents indeed have very little to choose from. If the upper and middle class parents, have to be content with a single option on when, what and how their children learn, the limitations on poor parents are far more basic. Despite their aspirations to give the best to their children, they do not have the option of rejecting a bad school and opting for the better one. Government schools are their only choice. Take it, or leave.
The sad part is that even though we, the advantaged segment of society, would not risk substandard education for our children, we are resigned to the idea that the poor shall go to the government schools. We recommend it to our maids’ and drivers’ kids, despite being aware that in most government run schools, very little teaching or learning happens and that children who enter these schools are doomed to remain at the bottom of the social ladder, for life. Though our sympathies are with the poor, we believe the panacea lies in shaking up the functioning of the government run schools. But how does one take on the system?
Luckily for India, there is an emerging new option.
The Centre for Civil Society (CCS) is an independent, non-profit, research and educational organisation devoted to improving the quality of life for all citizens of India by reviving and reinvigorating civil society. It is an ‘ideas’ organisation, a think tank that encourages people to look beyond the obvious, think beyond good intentions, and act beyond activism.
School Choice campaign is a flagship project of CCS. It’s two-pronged goal is empowerment of all parents with the right to choose the better school for their child and improvement in the functioning of the existing government schools.
The campaign, launched on January 29, 2007, aims to take the idea to at least 50% of the parents in India whose children study in Government schools. The goal includes creating awareness about the concept, among the officials and elected representatives, and present a road map for its implementation.
School Choice Campaign is already gaining ground in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Break monopoly
At the root of the campaign lies the belief that the monopoly of government run schools in the education of the marginalised children should be broken by getting the private sector into it. Since the government has failed to provide quality education through its schools, it should now allow entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, to freely open and run schools that cater to the parents’ needs. Restricting this has created an artificial scarcity of schools and that in turn, has resulted in the existing schools exploiting their customers.
   There can be no fundamental objection to the idea as, barring the Kendriya Vidyalayas, school education for the advantaged classes is already, entirely, in private hands.
There are two main reasons why the same has not happened in the economically weaker sector. One is that the parents here are unable to pay the fee which the private schools cannot do without. And second, all the state governments have, for certain valid reasons, been very rigid in granting licence to open new schools. As such legitimate, budget schools for the poorer children have not opened, proportionate to the demand.    
To counter the first, the school choice campaign advocates the concept of school vouchers. A school voucher is a special scholarship, which allows eligible parents to put their child in any school, government or private. It is a coupon of a specific amount, given by the government, that can be redeemed at any school chosen by the parent.
In the present system, the schools are accountable to the government bureaucracy. Funds follow schools, which in turn, provide education. The government pays teachers irrespective of their performance, and schools are mostly indifferent to disgruntled parents or students. In the voucher system, schools are accountable directly to parents since they pay for the education through vouchers. Under the voucher system, since money follows the student, schools, government or private, have to compete and satisfy the poor parent to get the voucher. 
Contrary to what one might assume, the voucher system will not put undue strain on the treasury. According to sources, city governments, on an average, spend not less than Rs 1,000 per month, per child in a government school!
The concept is not novel or untested. Education vouchers of different models are already in place in many European countries. Even Bangladesh has its own model for disbursing cash stipends to students. It is therefore possible to work out one that is tailor-made to our needs.
In addition to the government funding, the campaign also aims to bring in the money for the cause, from individuals and corporation. To provide the incentive, one of the campaign demands is to widen the existing tax rebate on fee paid to educate one’s own children to include the donation made toward privately funded, education vouchers.
On the matter of granting licence to new schools, the CCS has won its first battle. In March 2006, the Delhi government removed the cap on the number licences given out to open schools.
Over the last decade we have seen how market competition has dramatically enabled us access superior goods and services. There is no reason why the same should not be tried in the core sector of education as well. The CCS initiative in this direction has kindled hope that the miracle might after all happen and we get to see some improvement in the education of the marginalised children in our country. 
(For more information, log on to www.schoolchoice.in)