Where quality matters
With private sector schools taking their story to the media, and this back-and-forth with parents and the government continuing, it is important to register some important facts. The dimensions this debate touches are more moral than practical. The schools sell a product in the market, after all, where forces of demand and supply interact. The point of the interaction marks the price level. And so long as a relevant number of buyers are responsive, there is nothing wrong with the barter. The government is mandated to check excesses and cartel-like behaviour, of course, but it must meet some conditions first.
That brings us to the next most important issue; the public education machinery. It is one of the government’s foremost responsibilities to provide free and compulsory education to children between ages five and 16. And it is because of the government’s complete failure to meet this responsibility that there is increasing lower-income-group pressure on private schools. Now that the government is intervening on behalf of citizens, it does not have much of a ground to stand on. Neither quantity nor quality of government schools is up to the mark.
Importantly, there are points in the debate where both parties are off the mark. The point is not that private education is expensive all across the world – which, too, is incorrect. Rather it is that in certain cases it is becoming extremely expensive in Pakistan. Parents have a point that even minor-grade education in some private schools is beyond the scope of most middle and lower income groups, notwithstanding claims to the contrary.
There is a need for the government to bring some direction to this drama. It must set up a committee comprising all stakeholders – government, educationists, parents, etc – and chalk out an agreeable way forward. The government must, finally, pull its socks up with regard to education. And the private sector must not leverage the free market for exploitative pricing. The solution lies in the middle, with the government playing the lead role.