Role of Private Education

Role of private education
Banerjee and Duflo suggest that private education, from the side of the supply and demand wallahs, has a critical role to play in India education. From the supply wallah perspective, private schools provide an opportunity for parents to send their children to schools which, according to many studies, are more effective than public schools. Although there is an investment involved, Banerjee and Duflo have found that many low-income families are willing to make the sacrifice in order to educate their children.

From the demand wallah side, private schools arise because of the present lack of adequate education in many areas. A study by Tahir Andrabi, Jishnu Das, and Asim Khwaja from Pakistan showed that the teachers in private schools are often older girls from the area who received secondary education. If unable to find other work, the girls became teachers in the private schools [1]. Private schools often provide better education than public schools. A survey of absenteeism in India found that teacher absenteeism was less of a problem in private schools, and ASER found that students attending private schools had demonstrated higher levels of reading ability than that of public school students. However, private schools cannot be the only answer. Pratham’s work shows that whether private or public education is provided, it is critical to get the community concerned with and involved in educating its children. A study by Banerjee & Duflo, along with Rukmini Banerji, Rachel Glennester, and Stuti Khemani, shows that having young people who have received education act as tutors for the younger children can have dramatic results [2].

The Indian government seems to have recognized the crucial role of private education. In the Right to Education Act passed in 2009, the government instituted “voucher privatization” in which the government offers citizens vouchers to pay to send their children to private schools [3]. Private schools play an important role by providing “competition” for public schools which will hopefully prompt improvements in India’s public education system, but they alone can’t help solve the problems of education in rural India.

[1]. Andrabi, Tahir; Das, Jinshu; Khwaja, Ijaz. “A Dime a Day: The Possibilities and Limits of Private Schooling in Pakistan.” Comparative Education Review 52:3 (2008): 331.

[2]. Banerjee, Abhijit; Banerji, Rukmini; Duflo, Esther; Glennester, Rachel; Khemani, Stuti. “ Pitfalls of Participatory Programs: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation in Education in India.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. 2:1 (2010). 1-30

[3]. India’s Right to Education Act