Case of English-medium schools

In essence, the institution has grown in response to a need, an active market demand, to be precise. Parents always crave for the best education of their wards, a type that will give them access to fruitful higher learning at home and abroad and make them competent world citizens. By and large, they have served a good purpose. Indeed, the fact that a large number of students get very high grades in the internationally instituted O and A Levels examinations and do well further up the ladder has earned accolade and prestige for the country. All this is testimony to the high water-mark in excellence reached by a competitive bunch of schools.

Obviously, there are questions about a variety of schools that have neither the essential infrastructure comprising library, laboratory, playground, lighting, ventilation and toilet facilities nor qualified teaching staff and curricula conforming to the world standard. Such school owners are not so much in the business of imparting education as they are in making money. These virtually signboard outfits cry out for standardisation which is better achieved by having management committees insisting on adherence to prescribed rules.

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Now, we come to the high tuition fees charged by some schools which have lately exercised the public mind a good deal. The monthly fees; the annual components, some of which are linked to purchase of books, uniform and stationery; the charges for facilities make for a huge total, not affordable for most parents. We share the concerns of a section of the parents and consider the issue of fees to be something that must be looked into.

Yes, registration of the proliferating English-medium schools is an imperative necessity, and there is need for some regulation to ensure uniformity of standards. But the exercise undertaken by the education ministry should not degenerate into stifling the productivity, creativity and vision of the schools. Their contributions to the process of modern learning will have to be acknowledged for what these are worth.