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The first among the sectors to close during the 1st wave of a pandemic is the education sector and the last sector to open at the end of the pandemic wave is again the education sector. The education sector is taken extra care regarding health and safety as millions of students worldwide study in schools and various educational centres.
The schools are very much hit
because of pandemics, and that private schools are affected the most. In
India we have various kinds of school setups- Government, Aided and Private. The government is fully funded by the government, the aided in part funded by the government and the private schools are not funded by the government, the
private schools are in turn dependent on the student fee to run the school
operations. To run a low budget school of say 800 students, the annual budget
might go up to a multiple lakh to a Crore depending on the school location,
City type, quality of teaching-learning etc.
In this article, our focus is on low budget private schools that charge a very minimal annual fee anywhere between Rs 8,000 to Rs 25,000. The private schools are into worry as the admissions are very limited due to the pandemic. And few admissions have happened, again in those admissions the fee collection is very minimal or in few cases no fee collection at all.
We at Credence Learning Foundation
did a survey of around 500 parents during the start of the 1st wave
of a pandemic to understand the parents stand on the admission, online class
readiness and school fee payment capacity etc. Later on from the school front
we have tried to work with few schools to understand their current fee
structure and fee collection (This article is a general analysis of the situation
and not our survey analysis or result).
We have found that earlier (before
a decade or so) the fee collection used to be in the below pattern.
|
Structure |
Fee Amount
(Rs) |
|
Admission |
3,200 |
|
Monthly (700 rs X 12 Months) |
8,400 |
|
Total per
year |
11,600 |
|
Table 1 |
|
If you look at the above table,
the parents had to pay 3,200 Rs for admission and books and the child used to get
admitted and start the classes. And the parent had an option to pay a regular
monthly fee of 700 Rs per month as per his convenience.
If a parent has 3 children, in this
case, he has to spend 9,600 Rs (3,200 X 3 Children) for all 3 children during
the start of the year. Think of a situation of a daily wage worker, how he will
arrange the big amount.
Now let us look at the below table
whereby particularly in cities, the schools have adopted the yearly fee package model. This
model of school fees is even tougher for parents who are daily wage workers.
In this model, the parents can either
pay the full 11,600 Rs during admission or they can pay the amount in different
instalments during the year.
|
Structure |
Fee Amount
(Rs) |
|
Admission |
3,200 |
|
1st instalment |
2,100 |
|
2nd instalment |
2,100 |
|
3rd instalment |
2,100 |
4th instalment |
2,100 |
|
Total per
year |
11,600 |
|
Table 2 |
|
In situation 2 mentioned in
the above ‘table 2’, a parent has to pay 3,200 Rs per child and get the admission. If a parent has 3 children in this case also has to spend 9,600
Rs for all 3 during the start of the year.
And again parent has to pay bulky 2,100
Rs in each instalment which is highly difficult to pay at one shot. It becomes tougher
in a situation where multiple children studying from his family. Say if 3
children are studying, a parent has to arrange 6,300 Rs (2,100 X 3 Children) in
each instalment.
The challenge is not only about daily wage workers, even in terms of an average Indian monthly salary. How many parents will be able to arrange such a big fees instalment?
This leaves a big ?
mark.
As per a report by www.salaryexplorer.com a lowest monthly salary
in India range from 8,080 Rs only.
It says that an additional 230 Million (23 Crore) Indians Fell below the poverty line due to the pandemic.
In the below analysis, let us see in both cases of table 1 and 2, what are the challenges faced by the parents to admit their children in the private school.
Challenges |
Solutions |
|
Situation 1: |
|
|
During the pandemic, the parents cannot spend
6,000 rs or 10,000 rs at a time for admission. |
It is better to adopt the fee structure as discussed
in table 1, and forgo the admission fee of 3,200 Rs or tell the parent to pay
the admission fee in the later months.
|
|
Situation 2: |
|
|
The parent will either admit by paying a nominal
fee and pay the remaining later or not pay the remaining fee. |
It is better to adopt the fee structure as
discussed in table 1, and forgo the admission fee during the pandemic and take
only a 1-month fee as admission fee i.e 700 Rs and make sure that the school
gains admission.
|
|
Situation 3: |
|
|
The parent might not get the child admitted to
any school, and the child’s entire one-year gets wasted. |
The parent might have lost the job or the salary
might have been reduced at his workplace, thus prepare a plan whereby few
students are given free education so that you can retain the admission for
the after pandemic years (If possible you can collect a minimal fee of 20%,
say 150 Rs per month).
|
|
Situation 4: |
|
|
The parent will not get the child admitted as the
previous year fee is still pending or in the other case the school might not
be allowing admission without clearing the previous year dues. |
Schools can collect very minimal fees
from the previous year balances or forgo the previous year fee and focus on
current year admission and fee. |
Above are the few challenges and
their probable solutions towards a win-win situation.
What are the challenges faced at the parents' end:
1.
Many parents do
not have the habit of saving money, because of which they do not have ready cash
and they cannot pay huge admission fees during the start of the year.
2.
There are
many daily wage workers who earn and spend every day, so there is no question
of parents having ready cash for paying the admission fee.
3.
Parents are
not introduced to technology and they are hesitant to use mobile or a laptop for
online classes.
4.
Parents feel that
online classes do not help, so it is a waste of money to pay schools for online
classes during the pandemic.
What schools can do:
1.
Do have lot
of communication with parents and make them understand how the school and the teachers
are working hard to make sure that students learning does not stop even during
pandemic.
2.
Let the
parent know that they can take admission even without paying the admission fee (You
can share your scheme of the plan as discussed in the above ‘table 3’).
3.
Schools
should support the teachers as well as parents to get well-versed in technology
and learn the online teaching and learning techniques.
4.
Cultivate a
blended learning method in your school, so that children learn during online classes
as well as learn offline at home.
5.
Schools can
get in touch with some charity funding organisations and any government scheme
which can support the school financially and also support the children through
fee.
Just imagine a situation where the
parents are not able to even pay the business and house rents for months, how they
will be able to prioritize the education funding of their children.
It should be a win-win situation for both school and the parents, whereby the parents also contribute a nominal fee for the functioning of the school and the school also gives multiple payment options and schemes for parents.
The above part of the article covers pretty much the strategies which can be followed by the school to recover admissions and school strength during the pandemic.
_____
The below part covers a few highlights of the current situation of the people in our country, the kind of challenges faced by the people during pandemic. This analysis can be used to understand the parents' situation.
Below is the report highlight:
“State of Working India 2021 – One year of Covid-19”
-
The poorest were hit the hardest. These
included the self-employed and casual workers, who constitute 45% of total
urban employment.
-
The situation has led to losses in
employment and earnings, increase in informality and food insecurity, and a rise in poverty and inequality.
-
The women lost more employment than men
during the pandemic last year, nearly half of formal salaried workers moved
into informal work and the poorer households experienced far higher losses in
income during the lockdown period.
- Relatively speaking the effects of the lockdown and the pandemic were felt more in the urban areas than the rural areas.
-
The poorest households took the largest
loans relative to their earnings, and they have taken these loans from private
lenders at high-interest rates, and now their financial status is at peril.
-
The number of people who did not earn
anything increased between February 2020 and the end of the year.
-
The study also found that there was a
loss in monthly earnings for all types of workers (Refer the table 4).
|
Types
of workers |
Fall of monthly earnings
(%) |
|
Casual workers |
13 |
|
Self-employed |
18 |
|
Temporary salaries |
17 |
|
Permanent salaried |
05 |
|
Overall |
17 |
|
Table 4 |
|
1.
The news article discussing about the above 'State of Working India 2021 – One year of Covid-19' published in ‘thewire’ can be referred in below link-
2.
The full
report of “State
of Working India 2021 – One year of Covid-19” from Azim Premji University
can be accessed in the below link. The below report is owned by Azim Premji University.
CLF is providing a copy as an external link source.
About the writer:
Maaz Mohammed A.Q
The writer is an Alumni of Azim Premji University, has a mix of work
experience in the corporate and education sectors. Having completed MA Education
from APU, currently working on large scale education program deployment in
India. The writer can be reached through the email- reach.clf@gmail.com
The write is a co-founder at
Credence Learning Foundation which is the independent education news and views
blog.
You can download our android app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.justwebsite_info.Credence_Learning
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