Although Indian education is in the third position among the other countries in the world, it still faces some of the major problems which no other country faces. The major problem is that the distribution of education among all the states of India is not uniform. The alarming reason behind this is that rate of socioeconomic developments are not up to mark in India. Lack of literacy among all the people in all generations and distribution of wealth is the major reason behind this.
Pre-education in India is considered as something of luxury among many people. Preschool educations are so costly in India that it is very hard to afford for poor families. The cost of education in pre schools seems more costly than education in higher classes. One of the recently released fee structures shows that the “exorbitant fee” which is termed compulsory for many schools sums up to 30,000 per year for educating children below 5 years.
One recent calculation under S R Singaravelu, determined that the highest fee is 28,400 for kindergarten classes in a school named Sri Sankara Senior Secondary School, Adyar. He also reports that there are some schools who charge almost same fees like this in many parts of India. When questioned about the reason of such high fees, schools' answers that the fees are proportional to the amount spent on each child.
The schools explain that more teaching and non-teaching faculties and other essential equipments are required for pre-schools than higher classes. They also say that a single children's play gym for accommodating 10 children can charge up to 20,000. School books for lower classes are also more costly.
Schools say that the life span of furniture and play equipments used in play schools does not have more longevity and therefore needs to be replaced often. Schools added that they have one major and one small activity each week at school. Sometimes parents are also invited because children become more active in front of their parents. They have to keep an eye on each and every behavior of the child- from studies to sanitary habits.
Some parents feel proud and do not have any question about the performance of the kindergarten. But allotting their child in pre-schools with such a huge fee is not affordable for each and every parent. Middle class families feel the burden on their income to afford such high fees. Moreover poor children find no issue to let their child go to such expensive schools. Although, the pre-schooling is essential for the mental development of the child but at the same time high fees is too much to be considered.
Early childhood care is a key to success in higher classes for the children. Therefore pre-schools have no comparisons. It is very important to have pre-schooling before joining high schools. Kindergarten teaches a child how to become active, mix with various other children and learn basic ethics and culture.
An education activist, P B Prince Gajendra Babu, says that, "Education, expected to be the leveler, will lose potency if the state does not soon come out with its own early learning programmes for children of the socio-economically poor”. Indian education must be structured in such a way that it comes affordable for middle class families.
Tags:
Preschool Education In India
Childhood Earning Programmes
Importance Of Preschool
