Ever wondered why is education in India so expensive? What is the driving force behind the growing prices in the field of education? In India, primary school education alone costs ₹1.25 lakh to ₹ 1.75 lakh yearly.
Education is one of the few areas of the Indian development program experienced tremendous success. The gender enrollment gap has decreased up to secondary education, while enrollment in schools and higher education has increased dramatically.
But the findings of the 75th round of the NSSO survey on “Household Social Consumption of Education in India,” which was conducted from July 2017 to June 2018, are quite unsettling.
The growth of education has generally resulted in a rising household financial load, making education further than the second level almost unattainable for the majority of working people, and even schooling has costs for families that can be very significant.
Why are households required to pay such high costs when a sizable portion of enrollment is in public institutions, which ought to be far more open to everyone?
The Right to Education Act of 2009 mandated that schooling up to the age of 14 would be free and necessary, and the spirit of that legislation plainly called for the state to cover the costs of primary learning.
Additionally, there are other expenses related to education, such as textbooks, uniforms, and transportation, which increase the financial strain on families. And very few pupils received any help in this regard.
It is remarkable that higher secondary education costs are particularly expensive for private, unaided institutions almost as high as post-graduate costs.
In essence, this implies that not only the poor but now even members of the middle class are virtually shut out of postsecondary education.
Naturally, gender differences continue to widen after these stages as families become less willing to spend as much money on the education of girls.
The statistics are ominous. In metropolitan locations, it would cost close to 40% of a casual laborer’s salary to educate two children (assuming 20 days of work per month, which may be an overestimate).
Rural wage earners have smaller proportions, primarily because they are essentially barred from pursuing higher education for their offspring.
The poll reveals that just a small percentage of households made an attempt at it, and less than 0.5 percent of households with casual employees in remote areas had anyone enrolled in graduate school.
Average monthly costs for students in rural homes with casual labor went from 335 for secondary school to 576 for higher education to more than 12,220 for diplomas and certifications.
It is important to keep in mind that the actual fees make up just a small portion of the overall costs associated with schooling.
43% of all educational costs in rural areas versus 57% in urban areas were covered by institution fees, which include not only tuition but also examination fees, “development” fees, and other charges.
Particularly in rural places, a sizable portion of the budget is spent on books and other materials, and transportation expenses are high everywhere.
Interestingly, private tuition fees continue to be substantial, indicating that despite the relatively high charges, the quality of the learning given by institutions is insufficient to satisfy the expectations of students.
This implies that the recent increase in enrollment has come at a significant cost to families, particularly those who are less wealthy, who might have had to trade their few possessions or incur debt in order to provide for their children’s education.
Given the dire status of the employment market, these hopes for improvement through education are becoming more and more dangerous.
Unfair accessibility and high personal expenditures associated with educating more young people could very well have a domino effect on society; immediate legislative change is required for both employment circumstances and educational access.
The education sector is unfairly affected by inflation. Pushing the costs of education higher than any other sector in the market. The only way to ensure your child has access to a good education and ample opportunities is to start saving when they are young.
