| The provocation for this is not clear, since there is no reason why schools should not have a choice in their affiliation to a board that is recognised by the government. |
| Also, it is the all-India board that has to make sure that the school meets the standards specified, so what exactly is the interest of the state education department, is also not clear. Still, the rule about getting NOCs applies in every state. |
| Where Haryana is different is that it requires that a fresh NOC should be obtained every year. It is easy to imagine the price for getting these NOCs "" usually in terms of the admissions that are extracted by state officials and politicians, especially from the better-run schools. And if a school refuses to oblige, it can invite all manner of headaches, continuous harassment and even open threats to its staff. |
| Or take the case of the new law that is proposed to govern medical education. Since the Medical Council of India has not been a properly functioning body (as spelt out by Padma Prakash on this page last Wednesday), the government proposes to increase its control over the way medical education is governed. |
| Perhaps there is provocation because the existing Council has not distinguished itself, but it is not hard to imagine how politicians and bureaucrats will seek to extract personal mileage out of the greater control that they are about to give themselves. |
| Then, there is the story told about a business school that was about to start up. The education minister of the time was upset that he was not invited to grace the inaugural function, so he ordered that various stumbling blocks be put in the way of the school. |
| And then, of course, there was the whole business of Murli Manohar Joshi locking horns with the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), and taking umbrage at the prospect of the IIMs charging fees at a level that would free them from government control. |
| Result: they were ordered to reduce their fees and continue to depend on government largesse "" which, of course, would then be a lever used by the minions in the education department for purposes that cannot be advertised on the front page (ask the IIM directors privately and they will tell you some stories). |
| In their different ways, these episodes tell us the reality of what goes on under the guise of social control of a key element of the country's development effort. In Parliament and outside, the politicians will talk of seat reservation in the name of social justice, and of subsidised fee structures to help poor students. |
| In practice, they will do nothing to improve the state of government schools, or ensure that proper teaching takes place in them. In practice, also, you have the classic behaviour pattern of Djilas' New Class: expropriate for yourself the benefits that you say are being created and reserved for the poor. |
| And when students (and parents) vote with their wallets by choosing private schools and colleges, you immediately want to step in and prevent the market from offering some solutions. |
| To be sure, the market is never perfect. There will be rapacious capitation fees (up to Rs 40 lakh, it seems, for a seat in a post-graduate dental college), and when the hunger for education is so much more than supply, even poor quality institutions with overpriced courses will find students. |
| But as has already happened in the case of engineering colleges, there are now more seats than students, and the market has begun to sort things out. Allow the process to continue and the same thing will happen in other fields. |
| But in the current climate of expanding the role of the government in every direction imaginable, an important freedom is being circumscribed even more than before. And those who seek to run quality institutions find that the government is their biggest problem. |
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