Better performance of private institutions

With results of the High School Leaving Certificate (Class X) and the Higher Secondary (Class XII) final examinations of Assam declared, people across the state are once again discussing a common topic – that of why students of private institutions have done better than those of the government institutions. A simple analysis of the Higher Secondary final results will clearly show this trend. Of the 43 students who have occupied the top ten positions in the Arts stream, as many as 33 are students belonging to private institutions, with only 10 students coming from government institutions and colleges. Similarly, of the 25 students who have found place in the top ten positions in the Science stream, 22 are from private institutions, while only three from government institutions. The same is the status in the Commerce stream; as many as 16 of the 23 students who have occupied the top ten slots are from private institutions, while the remaining seven are from government institutions. What could be the reason(s) behind this exceptional performance by students of private institutions? Why have students of government institutions not been able to compete with students of the various private institutions? If one just takes a cursory look at the two categories of institutions, one will find two basic differences – (a) facilities for students in government institutions are much better than those in private institutions, and (b) teachers in government institutions get several times more salary than teachers of private institutions. In fact, a teacher of a government-funded college gets on an average one lakh rupees as monthly salary, an amount which a teacher in a private institution does not get even in twelve months. Moreover, a teacher in a private institution is constantly under mental pressure because there is nothing called job security. One simple example – teachers of most private institutions across Assam have not been given salary for the past two or three months on the plea of lockdown! Teachers employed with government higher secondary schools and colleges have been getting salary and allowances despite the lockdown. Yes, it is a fact that private institutions nowadays provide better infrastructure – classrooms and labs – in comparison to government institutions, because they charge several hundred times more fee than government institutions. It is also a fact that teachers and managements of private institutions take more care of their students, whereas the general complaint is that teachers getting government salary are least bothered about the overall well-being of their students. Private institutions maintain better hygiene and environment which could safeguard the health of the students. In comparison, most government institutions are not well-maintained. The government has to take the blame for the poor performance of government institutions. The government has a mechanism for inspecting schools and colleges. But after as many as 17 schools have shown zero pass percentage across Assam in the HSLC final examination this year, the government said it will close down the schools. When the government took this decision, did it try to find out when was the last time a government official had ever visited these poor-performing schools in the past several years. The government of Assam has an office in every district headed by an Inspector of Schools. The Inspector of Schools office basically deals with Secondary Education which includes High and Higher Secondary Schools from Class IX to Class XII. However, composite schools which start from Class I or Class VI to Class X or Class XII also come under the Jurisdiction of Inspector of Schools. But these Inspectors hardly go out to see for themselves how the schools are functioning and what are the problems being faced by the teachers and students. On the contrary, there is now a popular perception that these offices of Inspector of Schools have become dens of corruption. This is true of every district. The deputy commissioners of the districts should also be probably blamed. Being the overall head of their respective districts, how many of them have visited these government schools in the past one year? The government, the Assam Legislative Assembly, the intellectuals and educationists of the state – all of them should take a call. To begin with, officers at the Inspectors' level should be penalised first.