Does Privatising the Public Interest Guarantee School Quality in India? Looking through the Lens of Teacher Education

Abstract

There is a monopolistic competition in teacher education (TE) at the national level, characterised by a large number of substandard private stand-alone institutions. There is oligopoly at the regional level in which few states provide TE to the entire region. This is especially true for southern and western regions. Substandard private stand-alone teachers educational institutions (TEIs) are in majority in these regions. In this way, substandard private institutions have captured the TE market. So monopolistic competition has not contributed to TE quality in India. Oligopoly has neither ensured fair distribution of teachers nor adequately addressed teachers’ deficit within the regions. National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE), as a regulatory body, has failed to control these two market behaviours due to its own inherent weaknesses such as lack of skills, bureaucratic ineptitude and lack of ability to handle the complexity of technical knowledge. All these have led to information asymmetry within NCTE and poor teacher quality. In turn, school education suffers from lower levels of student learning. So, privatising the public interest of TE does not guarantee quality. NCTE must develop a robust TE management information system to address its inherent weaknesses.