CENTRE 
                                                        FOR CIVIL
                                                        SOCIETY
                                                       New Education Policy:
                                                       Choice & Competition 
                                                                                Parth J shah
                                                        LIberty
                                                        & SOCIety
                                                        SerIeS
             CENTRE FOR CIVIL SOCIETY
             A-69 Haus Khas, New Delhi 110 016         2
             Voice: 2653 7456 / 2652 1882 Fax: 2651 2347
             Email: ccs@ccs.in Web: www.ccs.in
                            New educatioN Policy: choice & comPetitioN
      Liberty & 
      Society SerieS
            entre for Civil Society organises academic programs for students, 
            professors, journalists, and NGO leaders all across India. At first, 
            these courses were titled as Liberty & Society Seminars (LSS) for 
      Ccollege students. CCS has since revised the program to focus more 
      on public policy and its implications in India, renaming the program as ìpolicy. 
      These four-day residential courses engage students in vital issues of public 
      policy, and in creating a new vision for India. They provide participants with 
      a greater understanding of the larger world—society, economy, and culture—
      within a liberal framework, which emphasises limited government, individual 
      rights, rule of law, free trade, and competitive markets.
      Challenging conventional wisdom, coupled with the excitement of discovery 
      provides participants a once in a lifetime experience. The success of these 
      courses, in creating new thinkers and leaders brought forth the idea of publishing 
      key lectures so that others could experience the intellectual adventure. The 
      lectures are a synthesis of research studies and various arguments that are by 
      nature polemical. This series seeks to make these stimulating lectures from 
      various CCS programs available to a wider audience.
      This particular publication has been published in partnership with Friedrich 
      Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit.
      *   Special  thanks  to  my  colleagues  Bhuvana  Anand  and  Namrata  Narayan  for  helping  
       transcribe and edit this document and Namrata Narayan for developing the slides.
      CENTRE FOR CIVIL SOCIETY
      Based on the lecture delivered by Parth J Shah at Liberty & Society 
      Seminars and ìpolicy courses since 2001.
                      Reprinted August 2012
                       ISBN: 81-87984-03-1
      This publication has been produced in partnership with the Friedrich-
      Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit. The contents of this publication are 
      the responsibility of the author and not of the organisation.
      Right to reprint and use is granted with due acknowledgement to the 
      author, Centre for Civil Society and Friedrich Naumann-Stiftung für die 
      Freiheit.
                                                                                  New educatioN Policy: choice & comPetitioN
                iNtroDUctioN
                The significance of education for economic growth and a progressive society 
                is immense. Providing basic education to more than a billion people is a large 
                and complex effort. So how is educating the Indian masses going to be made 
                possible? What are the roles of the State, the Market and Civil Society? 
                In  this  talk  I  address  these  questions  and  various  problems  surrounding 
                schooling in India. I suggest public policy solutions that will address issues of 
                quality, cost, access and diversity of schooling, with a particular concern for 
                the needs of the poor.
                A brief look at a few facts about the state of schooling in India will root our 
                discussions in reality.
                      •  One of four of the world’s out-of-school children is in India. 
                      •   Three out of four students in elementary classes are from the government 
                          schools.
                      •   Approximately half the children entering class I drop out before reaching 
                          class V, and two-thirds do so before reaching class VIII.
                      •  30% of Primary schools do not have permanent school buildings.
                      •  20% of Primary schools are single-teacher schools.
                      •  10% of Primary schools do not have a chalkboard.
                      •   25%  of  teachers  were  absent  from  school,  and  only  about  half  were 
                          teaching,  during  unannounced  visits  to  a  nationally  representative 
                          sample of government primary schools in India.
                      •  Over 1.4 million teachers’ posts are vacant in government schools.
                I  start  our  discussion  by  looking  at  a  few  myths,  facts  and  conventional 
                solutions regarding schooling in India. I then refer to the education systems 
                in Kerala and West Bengal to make a case for private schooling and limited 
                government control in education. I close with moving away from conventional 
                solutions and offer policy reforms to assure quality education to all through 
                more efficient use of public funds and deregulation and liberalisation of the 
                education sector.  
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