Private schooling is the bedrock of India’s thriving education system

India has over 1.5 million K–12 schools, with over 250 million students enrolled. Of this, while 25 percent of India’s schools are private, they enroll over 40 percent of the student population. There is no doubt that the majority of Indians prefer sending their child to a private school over a government school, ceteris paribus. This is true for rural areas as well, which saw student enrolment in private schools rise from 18.7 percent in 2006 to 25.6 percent in 2011, according to an EY-FICCI report.

It is no surprise that attainment levels and learning outcomes of students in private schools on average outdo those of government schools. A report by NCAER shows 65 percent of private school students able to meet class two level reading criteria, as opposed to 45 percent for government school students. In math it is 57 percent for private schools compared to 39 percent in government schools. The children in schools today will be entering the workforce in the 2030s. Schools are preparing them for their lives 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now.