Sharrayu Aroskar

I go to swimming regularly these days. For past two days, being on a medical leave I have chosen to attempt the 5:00 p.m. batch escaping the 6:00 a.m. morning chill. It has been an empty week so to say. I didn’t have much to do as such. A pressure free life sometimes leaves a vacuum and a strong urge to fill it with something concrete and impacting. I have been looking for ways around that I could be of help and be that impact I was looking to be. Time and again after returning from United States I have a growing feeling within that my countrymen do not feel empowered. They do not believe in the system and its power to bring about the change.

While I was in the ladies changing room I spotted a woman complaining about her daughter’s admission. This happened in a city that is known to be “the mother of educational institutes”. I was shocked and surprised. I approached her for a reason. What she mentioned was what I had heard before. What I knew today was that the problem was affecting a vast majority and the gangrene was wide spread.

Few days ago I was chatting with my neighbor who mentioned about “middlemen educationalist”. Till then I had heard the term “middlemen” prominently in real estate and prostitution business. I was agitated and helpless at the same time. This is the country that I want to raise my kids in and this is the country I look to educate my kids in. Why on this earth do I need to feed the middlemen to get this through?

There is a convent school in Viman Nagar, Pune, MH, India. This is run by the “missionaries”. It is an ICSE board school. Parents who wish to acquire admission to their wards in this school are known to religiously visit the Principal’s office for Lower K.G. admissions. The watchman or the attendant refuses to allow the meeting either by saying that the Principal is not available or admissions are full. There are some brokers or middlemen who operate on behalf of the school authorities. These men/women are then approached by needy parents. They are then given the “rate” or “cost” of admission which is in form of donations to the school authorities. This amount varies from 75 Thousand to 1.25 Lakhs. Parents who can afford this can wish to get the admissions rest are left to cry in silence over their helplessness to provide good and affordable education for their kids. One like the woman in the ladies room of the swimming pool I go. She was crying in silence away from her daughter’s knowledge in helplessness. This is the case of many middleclass parents in and around the Viman Nagar area. They cannot afford the “donation” through middlemen that the convent schools ask.

There are a few convent schools in this area that are graded as “good” by the localites.The fee structure of these schools is also very intense. It varies from 35 to 50 Thousand rupees per year. We all know the situation of government and municipal schools in this country. In light of this, isn’t it the responsibility of the local government to control this menace and ensure affordable basic quality education in this country? Shouldn’t the government nail down people to proliferate these malpractices impacting a common man’s house. I was ashamed to hear this in a city like Pune. It goes without saying that this could be the situation elsewhere as well.

Being from a middle class family and background I know the helplessness that parents feel when they have to say “No” to something that they know is requisite for their child’s growth but they can’t afford it. I can imagine the assault on the child’s mind at that tender age where he/she does not know what is happening and doesn’t even know how to fix it. At the onset of his first steps in the education system or rather the country’s system, what the society and the system teaches him/her is to shell out money to “illegal middlemen” to get tasks done. These are the kids that we say will be our country’s future. Would we still expect a clean and non-corrupt system after 50 years? Do we still expect things to change years later? Do we still expect a government clerk to refuse under table money when he has to pay huge donations to middlemen to fetch quality primary and secondary education in this country 50 years after independence?

If I as a local citizen of Pune could sense this in my 9 months of stay here, I am wondering what is the State Congress-NCP government doing for ten years now? Haven’t the account auditors questioned the Lakhs of rupees that the convent schools are extracting from the parents like extortion money? How much more time does the state government require to make quality and affordable education available to citizens of this country and that to in a city that is known to be the “mother queen” of educational institutes.