Education: Business or service?

With the reduction in government subsidies to the education sector, right from primary education to research, private sector has stepped in to fill the vacuum

Though education is the responsibility of the state, it has become an important part of everybody’s life. Education does not merely mean being literate. It helps to increase awareness about surroundings, social and political issues. It helps people to develop knowledge and wisdom necessary for personal, social and state life. As the Government is not in a position to provide substantial education for all, the private organizations play an important role in bridging the gap in the less developed and developing world. When these private institutions try to make money it becomes an industry. While the government must grant autonomy to institutions, it must also demand accountability to ensure quality but unfortunately it remains invisible. Education poses to be a business when scaled up for gaining financial end without considering the real needs and maintaining standard. It also can be a business endeavour when institutions charge big amounts but give quality education. When the institutions charge high amount but hardly ensures quality education, can we call it service? Definitely not. This is what is happening now in many institutions which sell education but the product does not come up to the mark. This is neither education, nor service nor business in the true sense of the term as business must have an ethical point as well. 

There are number of reasons for the commercialization of education. Parents are willing to pay high fees to admit their children into popular educational institutions. When they see that the government institutions offer poor quality education, they are ready to send their children to privately run but high tuition fee charged schools/colleges/universities. Education is both an industry and service. For staff and students it is a service and for the owners it is an industry. When the owners forget ethics, education becomes a business and it cannot be said legal business.  
With the reduction in government subsidies to the education sector, right from primary education to research, private sector has stepped in to fill the vacuum in some countries of the world. To meet their financial needs, the private institutions go for capitation and higher fee structure. If we take Bangladeshi context, we see private universities, English Medium schools don’t see any government benefit, and hence they charge high tuition fees from the pupils. These institutions provide education in business mode. Definitely they give service to the nation offering education but they do it through business. As government receives good amount of taxes from these institutions, it remains silent which means giving consent to do business. These incidents reveal that service motto takes the back seat with profits remaining as the main motto. To meet the resources requirements, obviously the private institutions have to look for capitation and higher fee structure etc. Apart from main stream institutions, we now have parallel educational institutions at various levels - coaching, information technology, etc. Apart from that, the mindset of the teaching staff has also changed over the years. Many of us still very vividly recollect our teachers and lament the present falling standards. Commercialization is the main reason behind it. Though the issue had been discussed at various levels by the educationalists and planners, it is sadly unfortunate that nothing much is being done to change the situation.
That is the story that one hears at several universities in the country – that although fee structures are high and universities are very profitable, they do not want to invest in adding on more professors and teaching assistants. Instead they want to retain more and more of the profit. Is it any wonder then that the quality of education is not what it used to be a few years ago? Is there a way out of this situation? Perhaps we need to raise the consciousness of the university management. Perhaps we need to work on improving the teacher-student ratio. Perhaps more project work is what is required. We certainly need to tackle this situation, and we need to do it now- the status quo is just not acceptable.
If we think of the education imparted in the private and NGO sectors, is it service or business? In one sense it is service as education is one of the five basic needs of humans. When the state cannot afford to ensure it for all, private sector or NGOs have come up to fill in the gap or to supplement the state effort. But it is business as well. The private schools, colleges and universities have proved themselves to be the perennial source of financial gain for those who are either owners or associated with them either way. They earn money from the institutions by fair means or foul as they devise different ways to enrich the fund to the institutions and the funds get enriched as the guardians are ready to pay for comparatively good education.  NGOs have not yet occupied this field fully and seized the opportunity so far but they now think of doing business in exchange of giving the community quality service and quality education which will really ensure the graduates to face the 21st century challenges boldly. 
“It is time for the United Nations and other international bodies to move beyond a singular focus on enrollment numbers and grapple with the problem of quality in education. In September, my organization, BRAC, joined a collaborative effort, led by Hillary Clinton and former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, that puts more girls in school while addressing the problem of quality for both genders. As part of that effort, BRAC, which is already the world's largest private secular education provider, plans to invest at least $280 million to reach 2.7 million additional girls and train 75,000 teachers by 2019. We call on others to make similar investments.”—this is the clarion call of the founder and chairperson, BRAC for the cause of education. It contains ample food for thought that development organisations must dedicate themselves to enhancing the situation of education in the country. First it should be in the form of social service as part of the responsibility of these organizations.
 Fulfilling the necessity of education first and the thought of   doing business should come next but quality must be the prime concern of either of the modes where state run education still struggles to ensure the desired quality.    

The writer is an educationist 
Email: [email protected] 

Education: Business or service?

With the reduction in government subsidies to the education sector, right from primary education to research, private sector has stepped in to fill the vacuum

Though education is the responsibility of the state, it has become an important part of everybodys life. Education does not merely mean being literate. It helps to increase awareness about surroundings, social and political issues. It helps people to develop knowledge and wisdom necessary for personal, social and state life. As the Government is not in a position to provide substantial education for all, the private organizations play an important role in bridging the gap in the less developed and developing world. When these private institutions try to make money it becomes an industry. While the government must grant autonomy to institutions, it must also demand accountability to ensure quality but unfortunately it remains invisible. Education poses to be a business when scaled up for gaining financial end without considering the real needs and maintaining standard. It also can be a business endeavour when institutions charge big amounts but give quality education. When the institutions charge high amount but hardly ensures quality education, can we call it service? Definitely not. This is what is happening now in many institutions which sell education but the product does not come up to the mark. This is neither education, nor service nor business in the true sense of the term as business must have an ethical point as well. There are number of reasons for the commercialization of education. Parents are willing to pay high fees to admit their children into popular educational institutions. When they see that the government institutions offer poor quality education, they are ready to send their children to privately run but high tuition fee charged schools/colleges/universities. Education is both an industry and service. For staff and students it is a service and for the owners it is an industry. When the owners forget ethics, education becomes a business and it cannot be said legal business. With the reduction in government subsidies to the education sector, right from primary education to research, private sector has stepped in to fill the vacuum in some countries of the world. To meet their financial needs, the private institutions go for capitation and higher fee structure. If we take Bangladeshi context, we see private universities, English Medium schools dont see any government benefit, and hence they charge high tuition fees from the pupils. These institutions provide education in business mode. Definitely they give service to the nation offering education but they do it through business. As government receives good amount of taxes from these institutions, it remains silent which means giving consent to do business. These incidents reveal that service motto takes the back seat with profits remaining as the main motto. To meet the resources requirements, obviously the private institutions have to look for capitation and higher fee structure etc. Apart from main stream institutions, we now have parallel educational institutions at various levels - coaching, information technology, etc. Apart from that, the mindset of the teaching staff has also changed over the years. Many of us still very vividly recollect our teachers and lament the present falling standards. Commercialization is the main reason behind it. Though the issue had been discussed at various levels by the educationalists and planners, it is sadly unfortunate that nothing much is being done to change the situation. That is the story that one hears at several universities in the country that although fee structures are high and universities are very profitable, they do not want to invest in adding on more professors and teaching assistants. Instead they want to retain more and more of the profit. Is it any wonder then that the quality of education is not what it used to be a few years ago? Is there a way out of this situation? Perhaps we need to raise the consciousness of the university management. Perhaps we need to work on improving the teacher-student ratio. Perhaps more project work is what is required. We certainly need to tackle this situation, and we need to do it now- the status quo is just not acceptable. If we think of the education imparted in the private and NGO sectors, is it service or business? In one sense it is service as education is one of the five basic needs of humans. When the state cannot afford to ensure it for all, private sector or NGOs have come up to fill in the gap or to supplement the state effort. But it is business as well. The private schools, colleges and universities have proved themselves to be the perennial source of financial gain for those who are either owners or associated with them either way. They earn money from the institutions by fair means or foul as they devise different ways to enrich the fund to the institutions and the funds get enriched as the guardians are ready to pay for comparatively good education. NGOs have not yet occupied this field fully and seized the opportunity so far but they now think of doing business in exchange of giving the community quality service and quality education which will really ensure the graduates to face the 21st century challenges boldly. It is time for the United Nations and other international bodies to move beyond a singular focus on enrollment numbers and grapple with the problem of quality in education. In September, my organization, BRAC, joined a collaborative effort, led by Hillary Clinton and former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, that puts more girls in school while addressing the problem of quality for both genders. As part of that effort, BRAC, which is already the worlds largest private secular education provider, plans to invest at least $280 million to reach 2.7 million additional girls and train 75,000 teachers by 2019. We call on others to make similar investments.this is the clarion call of the founder and chairperson, BRAC for the cause of education. It contains ample food for thought that development organisations must dedicate themselves to enhancing the situation of education in the country. First it should be in the form of social service as part of the responsibility of these organizations. Fulfilling the necessity of education first and the thought of doing business should come next but quality must be the prime concern of either of the modes where state run education still struggles to ensure the desired quality. The writer is an educationist Email: [email protected]