COVER+STORY
Education as a Business, Teachers as a Businessman
t cannot be denied that today education is a full fledged business, a huge amount of capital has been generated through this sector in this decade. In Prakash Jha’s movie Aarakshan, there is a scene where the minister says “Education se bada koi business nhi hai; paid service without guarantee”. This is not just a dialog of movie, it is the mirror image of today’s education system. I’m not talking about whole teachers community instead I’m talking a section of teachers society who are selling the education. It is unfortunate for this nation that today education is a business and teachers are businessman. There are many-many private & government schools & colleges where the business of education is done. For them student is the client and admission is a deal, now students of money are the preference of institutions rather than students of merit. The key term in this admission sector business which have evolved rapidly is management quota popularly know as MQ. Well everyone knows concept of MQ but in brief MQ is the process to take admission in colleges by giving donation (extra money excluding regular fees). Do you think MQ is the right thing? Business doesn’t stop here, it just the cover page. In many institutions teachers forces students to join their coaching centers. Once I’m talking to an owner of a coaching institute and he explains me the concept. ‘We hire teachers and pay them to teach in coaching classes plus if they bring more students from their institutions then we give them commission’ he said. I think teachers are not only the businessman they are
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salesperson also. I don’t think that anyone can measure the depth of this business, from the top level to the lower grounds everyone has used their creativity to make education a great source of capital. Talking to few BA students, I get to know that they never attend colleges and they get 75% attendance in their college. They bribe their teachers and they give them 75% attendance. Once I’ve met a friend’s brother who is a student of PGDCA course and he says “yaar paise se sab kuch kharida ja sakta hai”, I asked how? He replied “our practical exams are coming and we have to submit a file but I haven’t created it so I gave a 1000 rupee note to my teacher and he gave me a practical file of previous year students”. After the IPO of facebook, its now the turn of this sector. We will be soon seeing stocks and shares of education in the BSE. I hope this is what the next move of the education businessman. No one has ever imagined that this is how our teachers will get corrupted. If there are teachers who sell the education then there are also the teachers who are trying to save the prestige of a teachers. I personally give a standing ovation to those teacher who haven’t bowed in front of corrupt education system. They know that if they do the corrupt things the same will be passed to their students and a batch of corrupt citizens will be formed and when they become officers or other they will spread the roots of corruption. I appeal to every teacher that education is not a business it is a social service so maintain the dignity of this noble profession.
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