The Hindu Business Line : The burden of mediocre education

My wife and I wanted our daughter to go to a school closer home. This school, considered among the top institutions in the city, is not open to admitting children in Lower Kindergarten. Many like my daughter have to choose among other schools. Most of them end up in mediocre institutions. And that could be an economic burden on society. Why?

Consider this. Studies in neuroscience have shown that early years are important for cognitive development. This means that your child’s Kindergarten education is important for success in later years.

You may argue that a child learns a lot from parents. That is not entirely true. Right through the formative years, the child learns more from peers and teachers than from the parents. Try telling your pre-schooler to recite a nursery rhyme. There is a good chance that she will ask you to recite the way her teacher does at school!

What happens when a child goes to a mediocre school? The child, surrounded by mediocrity, is likely to become one. And that creates a burden on society. How?

Disparity in income

You know the disparity in income levels today. That is only likely to widen as our children grow. What do you think will happen when a mediocre child grows up and finds that her contemporary earns 10 times her salary?

Or worse till, what happens when a mediocre child does not get a job because she is mediocre? The crime rate will go up, as such people become desperate to manage their lives and ape the lifestyle of the rich.

North America seems relatively better off in this regard. They seem to invest in early education. The Early Years Centre in Canada, for instance, is one such programme.

Perhaps, the private sector and the government should jointly invest in setting up a good education system in India. This includes building the right talent-pool of teachers and offering them decent salaries.

Then, parents may not want their children to attend such “popular” schools. Nor will these schools act pricey.

(The author is an investment strategist.)

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