Solutions to Change

Public Funds for Private Schools The SC/ST Tuition Fee Reimbursement Scheme Parul Sharma Delhi’s private schools have been widely documented as providing better quality education than government schools. But the cost differential between private and government schools has resulted in the majority of poor students, a large number of them belonging to the SC/ST community, going to poorly performing government schools. In 2004-2005 only 5.6% of Delhi’s SC/ST students were enrolled in private schools. The Delhi government’s SC/ST Tuition Fee Reimbursement Scheme aims to increase the enrolment of SC/ST students in private schools. But like most other government run schemes it represents a case of flawed policy design and therefore very limited success despite no shortage of available public funds. The scheme was introduced in 2003-2004. It applies to SC and ST students of Delhi who are enrolled in recognized private schools and who have an annual family income of less than Rs. 1 lakh. It pr...

Who owns water?? D.Dhanuraj The world water summit is currently held in Mexico. There are contradictory reports on the availability of the clean drinking water in the decades to come. During eighties and ninties, the policy was based on the privatisation of drinking water. By privatising the water resources, it was estimated that the scracity and opertaional probelems can be solved. With the dawn of a new century, there is a rethought on this issue. Many of the private companies had to withdraw from the scene due to various reasons. Even the privatisation is not a solution to the drinking water scarcity. It was found that only with the cooperative movement of local citizens, a viable solution can be found out. In India, the half of the population is still lack the sanitation facilties. But in a socilalistic country like ours, the public enterprises also failed to chnage the situation. Most of the times, the Government dictates the ground water usage. Who gave the rights to the Gove...

The subsidy regime D.Dhanuraj One of the recent report says that if we calculate the total subsidy raj in this country, it is more than One Lakh Crores of rupees. If we look at the census data of this country, the poor accounts 27% of the total population. If we assume our population is 110 crores, the poor men population of this country staggers at 33 crores. The subsidies are meant for the poor people. So if we divide the total money budgeted under the subsidy system with the poor people of this country, what is the amount one should receive under the subsidy raj? If we forget for a moment that there is no Government buraeucracy and the money is directly given to the poor section of this country, I dare, next Forbes' list may have many more Indians!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Mess in Education By Ajay Shah / Business Standard / February 28, 2006 Putting educationists in charge of education policy is much like putting the DoT in charge of telecom policy. Everyone thinks the government should do more on education. But the case for State involvement in education is not that clear. Education is actually mostly a private good and not a public good. I study, I benefit. It is not like (say) national security, where the State builds an army and everyone benefits from being safer. In household surveys, the poorest quartile of Indian families spends a big chunk of their income on education for their children. This reflects the private benefits of education. Unlike difficult industries like telecom, there are no network externalities in education. The only complexity in education is that while the student captures much benefit, a part of the benefit spills over onto society. This can justify some expenditure of public funds on education. The choices for education ...