Private Schools in India印度的私立學校

何艷紅

The schools that educate almost half of pupils are in dire straits.

培養了近半數學生的私立學校正處于水深火熱之中。

Five dollars buys a months education at Rafiq Siddiquis private school， which serves the children of migrant workers living in a slum in Mumbai. But its corridors have been silent since March， when officials battling covid-19 closed schools across India. Mr Siddiqui， the principal， thinks almost 40% of his 900 pupils have left the city as their parents look for new jobs. The rest are “whiling away1 their time” at tea stalls and bus stops， seeking respite from the one-room dwellings many have to share with their families. Mr Siddiqui is trying to offer them online classes， but not many have easy access to smartphones. “We are going through a very long tunnel with no light at the end of it，” he says.

Indias education system was failing its children long before covid-19 forced them out of their classrooms. Only about 55% of the countrys ten-year-olds can read and understand a simple story， reckons the World Bank. The last time Indias children participated in internationally comparable tests， they ranked almost last out of 74 countries. The most recent large survey of staff attendance， in 2010， found that almost a quarter of public-school teachers were absent. In the state of Jharkhand the figure was close to half.

Dismay at this state of affairs is one reason Indias children have for years been flocking to private schools such as the one Mr Siddiqui runs. Before the pandemic nearly half of all children were privately educated， one of the highest rates in the world. Most are not from wealthy families. About 70% of fee-paying schools charge less than 1，000 rupees （$13） a month， according to the Central Square Foundation， a charity. Roughly 45% charge less than $7.

These institutions are struggling as the school closure drags on. In October the government lifted a national prohibition on schooling in person， but local officials， who have the final say， have largely chosen to keep schools shut. Ekta Sodha， who runs a small chain of private schools in the state of Gujarat， says that， although her teachers are offering online learning， less than a tenth of parents are paying for it. Mr Siddiqui has kept only four of his 31 staff on the payroll. His school owns its own premises， but others in the neighbourhood are finding it difficult to pay rent， he says. A few have shut for good. More are on the brink.

The travails2 of private schools will make it even more difficult to remedy the damage prolonged school closures are doing to Indias children. Studies suggest that， after controlling for class and wealth， children do not learn much more in private schools than they do in government ones. But private schools take on a huge share of the burden of education， vastly more efficiently. Some 80% of them charge fees that are lower than the cost per pupil in the public sector， according to Geeta Kingdon， an academic at University College London who also runs a private school in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The main reason is that teachers salaries are set by the market， not by politics. Staff in public primary schools， in contrast， earn around eight times Indias GDP per person. That is eight times more than the average in rich countries and well above the norm in neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan.

A large survey of rural schoolchildren carried out in September by Pratham， detected a small shift in enrolment from private schools to government ones. It said this could be because parents who had lost their jobs could no longer afford the fees， or because the schools themselves had gone belly-up3. If this trend accelerates the authorities will need to find a lot more cash for education， at a time when there is little to go around. The biggest worry is that some parents who can no longer send their children to a private school may prefer to keep them out of education altogether， rather than enroll them in a public institution with a bad reputation， or in a good one that is too far away. The exact scale of these shifts will be difficult to measure until schools are back in session.

Because private schools are required to operate as charities， they have not been allowed to take advantage of loan schemes to help small businesses. Rajesh Malhotra， the owner of a school in Delhi， says the local government has been a “mute spectator” of the problems he and others are facing. At the very least he wants the authorities to speed up payment of subsidies that private schools receive under rules that require them to admit a share of students from the very poorest backgrounds （the money sometimes arrives years late）. He thinks that during the current crisis the government ought to produce the money in advance.

India cannot afford to give handouts to private schools， says Bikkrama Daulet Singh of the Central Square Foundation. But he hopes the crisis can change attitudes in government. Some states “ignore” private schools; others meddle unhelpfully， by tightly regulating fees， for instance. Slashing rules that make it difficult to set up and expand schools would help the industry recover more swiftly. Officials who are now required to check the size of playgrounds and the colour of walls could spend more time making sure the teaching in private schools is up to scratch4.

The best thing would be to let schools reopen quickly， with some precautions. Indias extremely low rate of female employment makes families less reliant on schools for child care than they would be elsewhere. All this has made it easier for risk-averse state governments to keep schools shut， even though they have allowed many other everyday activities to resume.

Such decisions do not take into account the full cost to children of keeping schools closed. In October the World Bank estimated that missing out on school for six months would reduce pupils lifetime earnings by 5%， at a cost to the country of around $450bn. Out-of-school children are more vulnerable to scourges that already plague India， such as child labour and forced marriage. Mr Siddiqui is keen to bring children back to class， using masks， social distancing and extra cleaning for safety： “We have to make a start.”

拉菲克·西迪基私立學校為居住在孟買貧民窟的外來務工人員子女提供服務，學費一個月5美元。但是3月以來，學校的走廊沉寂下來，因為印度官方為了應對新冠肺炎疫情關閉了全國的學校。校長西迪基先生預料，全校900名學生中，近40%的學生已因父母找尋新工作而離開孟買。剩余的學生在茶鋪和公交站消磨時間，暫時逃離一大家子共住的單間住所。西迪基先生正在嘗試為學生們提供線上課程，但是很多學生沒有智能手機。他說：“我們要穿過長長的隧道，可隧道的盡頭沒有光。”

早在新冠肺炎疫情迫使孩子們停課之前，印度的教育制度就已經讓他們失望了。據世界銀行估算，印度只有約55%的10歲兒童能夠閱讀并理解簡單的故事。印度兒童最近一次參加國際可比較測試時，在74個國家中排名幾乎墊底。在2010年最新的員工出勤大調查中，近1/4的公立學校教師不在崗，而在恰爾肯德邦，這一數字接近50%。

多年來，印度兒童涌入像西迪基先生經營的這種私立學校，其中一個原因就是對公立學校的這一狀況感到失望。疫情暴發之前，將近一半的兒童接受私立學校教育，這一比率居世界之最。大部分學生并非來自富裕家庭。據慈善機構印度中央廣場基金會的統計，大約70%的收費學校每月收費低于1000盧比（13美元），約45%的學校每月收費低于7美元。

隨著學校關閉時間延長，這些私立學校正在苦苦掙扎。10月份，政府解除了國內學校面授課程的禁令，但擁有最終決定權的地方官員基本上選擇了繼續關閉學校。埃克塔·索達在古吉拉特邦經營著幾家小型連鎖私立學校，她表示，雖然她學校的老師提供網課，但只有不到1/10的家長為之付費。西迪基先生總共有31名員工，但目前只有4位員工領工資。他說，他的學校擁有自己的校舍，但是附近其他學校卻難以支付校舍租金。一部分學校已經永久關閉了，更多的學校則岌岌可危。

學校長時間關閉對印度兒童造成傷害，而私立學校處境艱難，要彌補這種傷害愈加困難。研究表明，把階層和財力因素考慮在內之后，兒童在私立學校學到的東西并不比在公立學校多很多。但是私立學校大大分擔了教育重負，效率要高得多。姬塔·金登是倫敦大學學院的一位教師，同時也在北方邦經營著一所私立學校，根據她的說法，約80%的私立學校對每位學生的收費低于公立學校。主要原因是教師的工資由市場決定，而不是由政治決定。相比之下，公立小學教職員工的收入大約是印度人均GDP的8倍，也是富裕國家平均水平的8倍，遠遠高于孟加拉國和巴基斯坦等鄰國的標準。

普拉塔姆基金會于9月開展了一項針對鄉村學齡兒童的大型調查，其結果顯示，私立學校和公立學校的招生數量都有小小的變化。據說這可能是因為有些兒童的父母失業，再也交不起學費;或者是因為有些學校自身已經破產倒閉。如果這種趨勢加劇，政府就需要籌措更多教育資金，而現在幾乎沒有可動用的資金。最令人擔憂的是，有些無法繼續送孩子去私立學校的父母可能寧愿讓孩子輟學，也不愿把孩子送進聲譽不佳的公立學校或者送到太遠的好學校。在學校復課之前，這些變化的確切程度難以衡量。

由于私立學校必須像慈善機構一樣運作，它們不能利用幫助小型企業的貸款計劃。拉杰什·馬爾霍特拉是德里一所學校的所有者，他說，對于他和其他人所面臨的問題，當地政府一直充當“沉默的旁觀者”。他希望政府至少能加速撥付補助金。根據規定，私立學校接收部分特困學生，即可獲取這筆補助金，但這筆錢有時要好幾年才到位。他認為在當前危機下，政府應當提前下放這筆補助金。

印度中央廣場基金會的比克拉馬·道列特·辛格說，印度沒有能力扶持私立學校。但他希望這次危機能夠改變政府的態度。有些邦“忽視”私立學校;有些邦幫倒忙，比如，嚴格管理收費。有些規定使學校難以建立和擴大，減少這樣的規定將有助于該行業更快地恢復。現在負責檢查私立學校操場大小和墻體顏色的官員可以花費更多時間確保私立學校的教學質量達標。

最好的做法是讓學校在采取一些疫情防護措施的前提下立即重新開放。印度女性就業率極低，家庭不像在其他國家那樣依靠學校來照管孩子。這些現實使得不愿意承擔風險的邦政府更容易遲遲不讓學校復課，盡管他們已經批準恢復了許多其他日常活動。

這些決定沒有考慮到關閉學校帶給兒童的巨大損失。世界銀行在10月評估，停課6個月會導致學生一生的收入減少5%，給國家造成約4500億美元的損失。雇用童工、包辦婚姻等現象在印度非常普遍，失學兒童更容易遭受此類侵害。西迪基先生熱切希望讓孩子們返回學校，同時采取戴口罩、保持社交距離、多做清潔等安全防護措施。他表示：“我們必須行動起來。”

（譯者單位：成都中醫藥大學）