A constant clash of fortune and schooling

Anish, my househelp's son, came to help his mother at our house after his school and looking at him dressed in a blue shirt and grey pants, the school uniform of the community school, I was hit with a gush of nostalgia. I began talking to him and realized that it was just the uniform pattern that was similar, but everything else in our schooling was vastly different. His classroom was a mix of poor education and unexposed opportunities. Where my teachers pushed me to explore finance, humanities, art and science, his teachers were limiting his options, his career and his dreams.

For ages, government schools have been criticized for their quality of education, prevailing infrastructure and lack of extra curricular opportunities. The government schools that are being greatly funded by the government are not able to match upto the level of exposure and experience that private schools  are able to offer.

The bare minimum infrastructural facilities that include books, ventilation, furniture etc. fail to reach the children. The students who shall be the future of our nation, who shall hold positions of power, who shall make decisions for communities, states and countries are reading in institutions that are limiting their development as individuals of high calibre. 

Private schools on the other hand being managed by efficient Management and Board of Directors, makes every tiny effort to build students into good men and women, to provide them with a present full of golden chances, a future full of aspirations and address each child as their fortune to carry forward the legacy of the institution.

With this notion and fact that has housed itself in the mind of every Indian, the parents of today that face the dilemma of choosing the right future for their children have been restricted to viewing just private if they want 'good'?

Are we thinking in the right direction?

Is growth actually taking place in a country where fees might have subsidized but quality has not been elevated?

Is our future bright when our learners are reading without books and learning without adequate material?

Is this the country we were promised, is this the country we dreamt of?

Till the time we keep considering fees to be an index of quality education that a child attains at school, we will not be able to bridge the gap between a public and a private school.