How to Rapidly Improve Our School Education

Start at the bottom of the Pyramid of education- schools. This is a large base of 1.5 million or 15 lakh schools in the country. We need to handle that first.

There is no point in throwing jargon at each other which has been going on for far too long in seminars, conferences, and published papers by think tanks who think they are the only custodians of education. For instance, experts say we need to revamp our education system- it is only rot learning- there is no creative thinking even in schools. For God’s sake what exactly is revamping? Then you have people suggesting that we must have immersive learning! Others say teach creativity along with critical thinking.


We need youth with basic common sense, values, and literacy to read and write, to communicate, understand simple orders, and jobs, and to perform effectively. We do not need 1.4 billion scientists, doctors, engineers, professors, researchers, designers and strategists- we want literate people who can add subtract, write a para or two and are good at something else too. Employers are not looking for Einstein’s or Rocket scientists. Let us understand what the industry and society- largely- requires. We need people who can express themselves and articulate their thoughts for others to understand them- nothing more nothing less

School education needs to be simplified instead of making it complicated. Here we are dealing with millions of children in different states, different mother tongue and different level of teachers and students.

Actually the list of such tongue twisters may be too long and I have listed a few as sample below. Which experts suggest we must bring into our education:-

Asynchronous learning. Cognitive mapping, Auto didacticism. Experiential education, Educational Perennialism, Blended learning, Brainstorming, Cognitive relativism Cohort learning, Collaborative learning, Constructivist epistemology, Knowledge Management, Critical pedagogy, Curriculum-based measurement, Epistemology, Numeracy or Obscurantism!

The above is a list of things which is meaningless- at least for most of us. Does anyone even understand these fancy words? We need to first simplify things and start thinking in a simple manner and simplify our perspective- yes perspective.

Schools are the place to build a strong character, create a sense of responsibility and discipline. We have missed out on that in a big way, chasing things which are less important. As both parents are getting into work force more and more, values being taught at home have taken a hit and it becomes important to lay more stress on these issues at schools.

We must have a national mandate to drill the following five points in every Indian via schools.

1. Punctuality.

2. Discipline and obedience

3. Nation first and national pride

4. Doing your best in whatever you do

5. Integrity, trust and loyalty.

Schools are a place where every child has to go to- college education may not be every ones cup of tea. Of course only a limited number goes to college for formal education. Therefore catch them all, catch them young is the best way.

These five points- five points only- must be repeated several times in a day. Every wall must have these five point placards in every school. Start your assembly with these five points - end your day with this. This will transform the nation. The problem is when we put too much on the table. You bite much more than you can chew. That is why it does not work.

Look at ‘Swachch Bharat’ Campaign two word message plastered everywhere repeated several times a day through different mediums. Radio, TV, print, bill boards, writings on the wall.

And it worked and had a positive impact on the entire nation.

Starting from schools, take this message to colleges, Universities and then general public- the whole nation should be chanting these five points- that is how we will be able to change the attitude and build a national character. This should become a national mantra an anthem of sorts.

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” —Maimonides
How to makes schools better-perform better?

Government is spending a lot of money on schools. Our education budget for schools has been raised from 63449 Crore INR in 2022-23 to INR 68,805 crore – an 8% jump. The entire education sector has got highest ever allocation of INR 1.12 lakh crores ($13.66 Billion).

The pay scales of government school teachers are very respectable though there are differences in the scales depending on the level of class primary or secondary and may be different in different states.

Yet we are not satisfied with the teacher’s performance. The basic reason is neither the salary nor the competence. It is the ‘accountability’ and no fear of nonperformance. No amount of motivation will work if you are not accountable. All that has been tried in the last seven decades and the result is in front of us. Government schools are unfortunately looked down upon. We are spending so much money to produce a horrible output? We need to be thinking politically wrong to be right! And I am doing just that. We need to call a spade a spade.

The basic problem is ‘sarkari naukri’ government job which once under the belt will always be your trophy for ever. The school principals can do little in this and they are expected to deliver. Simply put private schools (non-funded) perform much better than government schools.

It is simple- as teacher you need to perform or perish as far as private schools are concerned.

Hardware software problem- Hybrid approach

Let me start with an analogy as an example. ‘Indian Railway’- is a huge infrastructure with Railway stations, railway tracks and trains all other peripheral infrastructure being built by the government at a colossal cost. With some 39,000 miles (62,800 km) of track length, India’s rail system, entirely government-owned, is one of the most extensive in the world, while in terms of the distance traveled each year by passengers it is the world’s most heavily used system. It may be the largest and richest infrastructure owned by the government. It is a ‘need of the nation’ and a social obligation too. Millions of Indians use the railways for travel and even transporting goods. This is a very complicated technology based, accident sensitive, and security breach prone system with thousands of kilometers of track, thousands of railway parking yards and railway stations.

To give a better and more user friendly experience to the passengers a number of services have been outsourced. For instance the pantry car and eating joints (run by professional caterers) at railway stations have been in existence for decades as the railways ran the main operations of running the trains but catering was outsourced.
Railways has started outsourcing more services to private players. In fact it is good for any organization to focus on its core competence and core business.

For instance according to mint Indian Railways decided to outsource operation and maintenance of five railway stations to firms outside state control for 15 years to improve customer experience.


The firms that win the contracts will handle operations such as selling platform tickets, running station stalls, railway display network, advertising on station and its premises and parking.

The idea is to have expert management firms on board that have experience managing hotels too. The revenue sharing model for the five stations is yet to be finalized, and will most probably be based on gross operating profit model.

However, all core operations such as signaling and movement of trains will remain with the Railways. These are critical for safety and smooth operations.

In another move to make stations cleaner and maintain infrastructure at high operational levels like plumbing, lighting etc, the Railway is engaging professional/reputed agencies for the purpose of outsourcing of cleanliness at 50 major railways station.

Railways is doing it to have better customer experience. This model works on ‘profit sharing basis’ so that adequate incentive is given to the one providing service. Yet railways authority has to monitor the performance of the service providers.

Even telecommunication took off only after NTP National Telecom Policy was ushered in 1994. It brought private players in a big way and the government and customers across the nation benefited. Of course TRAI was a regulator to monitor the performance of the private service providers. One of its main objectives is to provide a fair and transparent environment that promotes a level playing field and facilitates fair competition in the market.

People jump to weird conclusions and say that the government is privatizing railways- some will go to the extent that government is selling out railways to private parties. The government is obliged to respond even if intentions are good and public interpretations are bad.

One such sample is given below of a clarification.

The government is not privatizing the Indian Railways but only outsourcing commercial and on-board services to private players in order to provide better facilities to commuters, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal said in Rajya Sabha.

"If there are private players willing to invest and come and run on the ’existing system’, which continues to be always owned by the Indian Railways the consumers and passengers will benefit." He added

Maintaining that the government is corporatizing railways not privatizing it, Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi said, "We are outsourcing only the commercial and on- board services to private players. Ownership will be with railways. We are giving only licenses. They are bringing in new rates."

Similarly the government builds roads and private companies provide busses and run them along with the government owned busses.

There can be several examples to this effect.

A similar- hybrid model for schools

Railways is retaining all the infrastructure and also retaining critical operations with themselves. All other services are being out sourced. The outsourced services are not critical but are very important.

The schools are as important if not more important than railway services for a nation- especially India which is a developing nation with 15 lakh schools. It is also a complex network spread across the whole nation. If there is a railway station there are several dozen schools in that town too. Schools are the foundation of a society and very critical for developing Human resource and good citizens. The contribution of good schooling cannot be quantified easily as a contributor to national GDP but sure enough it is a major factor to boost the national progress in more ways than one.

“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” —John Dewey

Simply put railways has three components- Infrastructure, Technical operations and maintenance and customer services like catering, cleaning, housekeeping and ticketing etc.

Schools unlike railways has only two components. One is infrastructure the other is teaching (service).

It is a given that private schools impart better education than government schools. There is no debate on this. The reason is simple- it is the ‘accountability’ right from principal downwards- which is the software part of the system- running the show. A teacher who does not perform can be fired and that is how one performs. The teachers in few private schools are paid well but many are not. Yet the government school teachers get good salaries- yes good salaries- without accountability and you cannot touch them as they are government servants. You cannot fire a government teacher. He or she can be a lousy performer yet you have to keep paying that person his monthly salary. Principal or management can do nothing. Then how do you improve the system? Bring in accountability and fear of law. Let this be understood, neither the teacher is doing a favor by teaching as per standards nor the management/government is doing a favor to the teacher by compensating by giving suitable remuneration. It is mutually beneficial.

I would like to draw a corollary from a quote by Georges Benjamin Clemenceau who was a French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920.’



I feel ‘Education is too important a thing to be left entirely to the academicians’

If it is applicable to army which actually fights the war, I am sure academicians will take it with a pinch of salt.
Unfortunately education in India is a ‘charity’! Why will someone invest Crores in infrastructure and do charity and on top of it work hard to deliver quality education. And not earn a rupee out of it. You carry the cross ‘Not for profit’- voila!

This is totally a flawed thinking and basis that we are running the system and this is the basic reason for education budget going down the drain. So what happens on ground is something very different. Private investor comes up with a school investing millions and has to pose it as ‘not for profit’ entity- yes register as such and be accountable to charity commissioners and such government bodies.

He charges fees to the parents and pays salary out of that to teachers, and here the struggle starts. In the first place he started with the intention of making money and why not? So he uses all other means to make money- obviously not in the best of the manner. There may be several ways of making money out of ‘not for profit’ organization. It is circumventing the system. This is beyond the scope of this hypothesis but suffice it to say, the person makes a good to great profits- which for obvious reasons is not transparent. You want a communist system to deliver capitalistic output?

The way out.

If you have liberated all sectors why not liberate ‘Sarswati’ too? Sarswati is the goddess of knowledge. If not fully at least let her breathe partly.

Let the government create the Hardware- buy land, create a good infrastructure, class rooms etc as per laid norms by the government and let the teaching service (software) be provided by an education service provider of repute. Here too let the salary be paid by the government- through the school administration so that a staff member is on the payroll of a private service provider and not the government. Now this is the most important aspect with a catch that needs to be handled by law makers. The service provider becomes a buffer between government and staff. Let the service provider get a service charge for his service- built into the contract with some additional incentive for better performance. Operations are handled by a professional and payouts done by government.

This is a broad idea but a workable idea. The details of income for the education service provider needs to be worked out. But if you pay peanuts, you will only get monkeys. Some incentive has to be there to deliver. No one will work for free. Naysayers in our country are plenty and they will cry their lungs out against this idea.

Today even if the government is paying huge salaries to teachers the output is not good enough (in fact bad) because there is no accountability and no fear of losing your job- a total public sector attitude.


Create an SERAI - School Education Regulatory Authority of India to give licenses, monitoring performance and hand holding. Even if you let the guy earn a ‘reasonable’ amount for his education service as per industry norms the system will be cost effective and the entire money not going down the drain. Look at it as addition ‘expense for proper fund utilization’- EPFU.

If this is done there will be lot of well-meaning people – not angles- who will do a great service but for some reasonably good profit as per industry norms. Today angles don’t exist or are very few.

The basic argument is that unless you have a carrot a horse will not run- it will not even walk. You cannot change the laws of nature and don’t even try because you have failed till now. Stick can follow with ERAI in place for performance monitoring. Let us get off our high moral horse and smell the coffee. Do the way it can work and shrug off your pipe dream of ‘charity’.

I urge that the government can build a few model schools - two in each state and see how it runs as a pilot project. Don’t try this with existing government schools or you will start either a political slugfest or ‘strikes by school staff or both.

If such a large railways can run I am sure this hybrid model for schools can run too- very well. We need to change our mindset.