The debate around private and state schools is gathering momentum. For the millions of newly urbanised Indians, the prospect of sending their children to private schools fits in with their belief of a better future ahead. Given how private schools have managed to brand themselves in this digital age across tier-1 and tier-2 cities, and the emergence of new players in education, enrolment decisions are now taken on the basis of visible infrastructure, student-teacher ratio, and availability of co-curricular activities, while some critical factors pertaining to education have taken the back seat.

When it comes to school education, there is more than meets the eye. For starters, the increased visibility of private schools does not necessarily amount to quality education, better-paying capacities for the staff members, or a significant shift in enrolments from government to private schools. Two, bureaucratic sanctions and policies for private schools are curated around a few prominent players, thus presenting a skewed picture. With many private unaided non-recognised schools also in the fray across states, one does not get the complete picture when evaluating the performance of children studying in private schools.

While the success of Right to Education (RTE) is debatable, it must be lauded for bringing all schools under a single roof by warranting mandatory registration. This has ensured visibility of non-recognised aided/unaided private schools that were earlier operating without any recognition.

Before digging into the intricacies of enrolments across private and state schools, one must have clarity with the segmentation of the former. Clearly, state schools are funded by the government. Besides, there are private aided schools that function like state schools, teachers are selected via a State Education Service Commission and, unlike private unaided schools, are paid at par with the ones in state schools.

Second, there are private unaided schools, the likes of which are now common in cities. For the clarity of readers, the categorisation in the article shall include government schools (state schools), private schools (private unaided schools), and aided schools (private aided schools).