Private,Schools,in,India印度的私立学校

何艳红

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

培養了近半数学生的私立学校正处于水深火热之中。

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·西迪基私立学校为居住在孟买贫民窟的外来务工人员子女提供服务，学费一个月5美元。但是3月以来，学校的走廊沉寂下来，因为印度官方为了应对新冠肺炎疫情关闭了全国的学校。校长西迪基先生预料，全校900名学生中，近40%的学生已因父母找寻新工作而离开孟买。剩余的学生在茶铺和公交站消磨时间，暂时逃离一大家子共住的单间住所。西迪基先生正在尝试为学生们提供线上课程，但是很多学生没有智能手机。他说：“我们要穿过长长的隧道，可隧道的尽头没有光。”

早在新冠肺炎疫情迫使孩子们停课之前，印度的教育制度就已经让他们失望了。据世界银行估算，印度只有约55%的10岁儿童能够阅读并理解简单的故事。印度儿童最近一次参加国际可比较测试时，在74个国家中排名几乎垫底。在2010年最新的员工出勤大调查中，近1/4的公立学校教师不在岗，而在恰尔肯德邦，这一数字接近50%。

多年来，印度儿童涌入像西迪基先生经营的这种私立学校，其中一个原因就是对公立学校的这一状况感到失望。疫情暴发之前，将近一半的儿童接受私立学校教育，这一比率居世界之最。大部分学生并非来自富裕家庭。据慈善机构印度中央广场基金会的统计，大约70%的收费学校每月收费低于1000卢比（13美元），约45%的学校每月收费低于7美元。

随着学校关闭时间延长，这些私立学校正在苦苦挣扎。10月份，政府解除了国内学校面授课程的禁令，但拥有最终决定权的地方官员基本上选择了继续关闭学校。埃克塔·索达在古吉拉特邦经营着几家小型连锁私立学校，她表示，虽然她学校的老师提供网课，但只有不到1/10的家长为之付费。西迪基先生总共有31名员工，但目前只有4位员工领工资。他说，他的学校拥有自己的校舍，但是附近其他学校却难以支付校舍租金。一部分学校已经永久关闭了，更多的学校则岌岌可危。

学校长时间关闭对印度儿童造成伤害，而私立学校处境艰难，要弥补这种伤害愈加困难。研究表明，把阶层和财力因素考虑在内之后，儿童在私立学校学到的东西并不比在公立学校多很多。但是私立学校大大分担了教育重负，效率要高得多。姬塔·金登是伦敦大学学院的一位教师，同时也在北方邦经营着一所私立学校，根据她的说法，约80%的私立学校对每位学生的收费低于公立学校。主要原因是教师的工资由市场决定，而不是由政治决定。相比之下，公立小学教职员工的收入大约是印度人均GDP的8倍，也是富裕国家平均水平的8倍，远远高于孟加拉国和巴基斯坦等邻国的标准。

普拉塔姆基金会于9月开展了一项针对乡村学龄儿童的大型调查，其结果显示，私立学校和公立学校的招生数量都有小小的变化。据说这可能是因为有些儿童的父母失业，再也交不起学费;或者是因为有些学校自身已经破产倒闭。如果这种趋势加剧，政府就需要筹措更多教育资金，而现在几乎没有可动用的资金。最令人担忧的是，有些无法继续送孩子去私立学校的父母可能宁愿让孩子辍学，也不愿把孩子送进声誉不佳的公立学校或者送到太远的好学校。在学校复课之前，这些变化的确切程度难以衡量。

由于私立学校必须像慈善机构一样运作，它们不能利用帮助小型企业的贷款计划。拉杰什·马尔霍特拉是德里一所学校的所有者，他说，对于他和其他人所面临的问题，当地政府一直充当“沉默的旁观者”。他希望政府至少能加速拨付补助金。根据规定，私立学校接收部分特困学生，即可获取这笔补助金，但这笔钱有时要好几年才到位。他认为在当前危机下，政府应当提前下放這笔补助金。

印度中央广场基金会的比克拉马·道列特·辛格说，印度没有能力扶持私立学校。但他希望这次危机能够改变政府的态度。有些邦“忽视”私立学校;有些邦帮倒忙，比如，严格管理收费。有些规定使学校难以建立和扩大，减少这样的规定将有助于该行业更快地恢复。现在负责检查私立学校操场大小和墙体颜色的官员可以花费更多时间确保私立学校的教学质量达标。

最好的做法是让学校在采取一些疫情防护措施的前提下立即重新开放。印度女性就业率极低，家庭不像在其他国家那样依靠学校来照管孩子。这些现实使得不愿意承担风险的邦政府更容易迟迟不让学校复课，尽管他们已经批准恢复了许多其他日常活动。

这些决定没有考虑到关闭学校带给儿童的巨大损失。世界银行在10月评估，停课6个月会导致学生一生的收入减少5%，给国家造成约4500亿美元的损失。雇用童工、包办婚姻等现象在印度非常普遍，失学儿童更容易遭受此类侵害。西迪基先生热切希望让孩子们返回学校，同时采取戴口罩、保持社交距离、多做清洁等安全防护措施。他表示：“我们必须行动起来。”

（译者单位：成都中医药大学）

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