Choosing between Private education v/s Public School Education
According to JustIndianSchools a discussion like this should consider the following factors:
- teaching
- class size
- Focus on personal development
- administrative support
- budgets
- facilities
Teaching
Public sector teachers are generally better paid better than private sector schools. Moreover compensation varies widely depending on the local economic situation. Unfortunately low starting salaries and small annual salary increases result in low teacher retention in many public school districts. Additional benefits in public sector benefits have historically been excellent; however, health and pension costs have risen so dramatically, that public educators have been forced to pay more for their benefits.
Private school compensation tends to be somewhat lower than public. Again, much depends on the school and its financial resources. One private school benefit found especially in boarding schools is housing and meals. Both public and private schools require their teachers to be credentialed, which means a proper teaching certificate would be required.
Generally private schools tend to hire teachers with advanced degrees in their subject over teachers who just have an education degree. That means a private schools hiring an English teacher will want that teacher to have a degree in English language and literature as opposed to an education degree with a minor in English.
Class Size
The main reason many parents begin to consider a private high school is because the classes are small. Individual attention is one of the key pointers of private education. You need teacher to student ratios are 1:8 or better to achieve that goal of individual attention and to ensure that your child is not lost in shuffle.
On the other hand a public system has to take almost anyone who lives within its boundaries. Public schools generally have much larger class sizes, some times exceeding 30-35 students in some schools. At this junction teaching rapidly declines and student’s attention also decreases.
Focus on Personal Development
The major focus of most private high schools is getting the student ready for higher studies, college, personality development apart from the academic preparation. In such a way, a student can emerge from high school with both a degree and a clearer planning of their future career.
Administrative Support
The longer the hierarchy, the harder it is to get decisions made at all, much less to get them made quickly. The public sector education system is notorious because of its stringent work rules and bureaucracies. This type of union is generally a result of political considerations or union associations.
Private schools on the other hand generally have a lean management structure. Every rupee spent has to come from operating income and endowment income. The other difference is that private schools rarely have teacher unions to deal with.
Budgets
A lot depends on the schools annual budget since it’s a correlation between the local property taxes support and the political business. In poor communities or communities which have many voters living on fixed incomes, there is very little time to respond to budget requests within tax revenues projected.
On the other hand private schools can raise tuition fees and also raise significant money from variety of other sources like annual appeals, donations, alumni membership charges and grants from foundations and corporations. The strong commitment towards private schools by alumni makes it possibly a success for raising funds from alumni.
Facilities
Private high schools have been giving a lot of focus on building their body of knowledge through a fully equipped library, which are now called media centers. Whether a private school is large or small both media and learning centers become the focal point of the very best private high schools.
Private schools include the rating of athletic activities in their curriculum. Many private schools and international schools offer sports like hockey, racquet sports, basketball, football, swimming, as well as dozens of other sports. Besides professional staff to coach the teams and manage these athletic programs, private schools also have the facilities to house and support all these activities.
Apart from sports extracurricular activities are a major part of private high school programs like choirs, bands and drama clubs can be found in most schools. The teacher’s guide or coach extracurricular activities as part of their job requirements.
In public schools the first programs to be introduced to the students are sports, arts programs and extracurricular activities.
Although the trend is changing now where many public school facilities are becoming impressive; others still remain mediocre. In some cases the same is true of private schools. In the public school system, the two pillars of political support and economic revenue base are critical.
Whereas in private schools the ability to attract parental and alumni support endowments and other forms of financial support are just as critical. Today private schools in the range of K-12 education have shown enough attention to facilities and amenities pertaining to school infrastructure which even surpass those found at many colleges and universities. It is hard to find comparable facilities in the public sector, that might be fewer in number and in between.
Public schools also reflect the economic realities of their location. Wealthy suburban schools will have more amenities than inner city schools as a rule. Who do you think has the edge? JustIndianSchools says it’s a draw what’s your take on my consideration?
Finally, private or public sector schools who comes out on the top? There could be no clear cut answer or conclusions. Both private and public schools have their advantages and disadvantages. The question for parents is which works out best for you? Weigh your options before making your decisions.
This article has been written by Amitava Sen working for justindianschools.com, an online information service provider for schools in India.
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