[Answered] Examine how the growing costs of education highlighted by the NSS 80th Round exacerbate inequalities in access to quality education in India. Critically analyze the policy response required.

Introduction

NSS 80th Round (2025) reveals steep rises in private schooling and coaching costs, contradicting Article 21A’s mandate of free education. Coupled with MPCE disparities and ASER learning gaps, educational inequality intensifies across socio-economic groups.

Rising Costs as a Driver of Inequality:

1. Present Observations: The NSS 80th Round shows only 55.9% of students remain in government schools, while 31.9% are in private unaided schools charging substantial fees. Annual private school fees range from ₹17,988 to ₹49,075, often equaling or exceeding the monthly expenditure of the poorest 5% households (HCES 2023–24).
2. Rural–Urban Divide: Private school enrolment: 24.3% (rural) vs 51.4% (urban). Urban households spend 2–3× more on schooling, deepening spatial inequalities. Similar patterns were documented by UNESCO’s 2023 South Asia Education Report, which warned of “creeping privatisation” and “structural exclusion.”
3. Private Coaching as an Inequality Multiplier: 25.5% rural and 30.7% urban students take private coaching. Expenditure: ₹7,066 (rural) vs ₹13,026 (urban) annually. Higher-income households disproportionately access coaching. The World Bank’s “Learning Poverty” (2022) notes such parallel markets create “shadow education systems” benefitting the affluent.
4. Learning Outcomes Worsen Inequality: ASER 2023 found: Only 43% of Class 5 students can read Class 2 text. Students from private schools + coaching consistently outperform poorer peers — reproducing the “Matthew Effect” (advantaged learners gain more advantage).
5. Feminisation of Educational Exclusion: Even though gender gaps in enrolment are small, girls disproportionately drop out when schooling becomes costly. NSS data show lower female enrolment in private schools—indicating intra-household discrimination.

Why Government Schools Are Losing Ground

1. Declining trust due to teacher absenteeism, poor infrastructure, and limited digital access.
2. Underfunding: India spends 2.9% of GDP on education (below NEP’s recommended 6%).
3. Excessive reliance on private providers has shifted education from a right to a market good.

Policy Response Required — A Critical Analysis

1. Strengthen Public Education Quality (Core Reform): Expand school infrastructure norms under the RTE Act 2009. Implement School Quality Assessment and Accreditation Framework (SQAAF) nationwide. States like Delhi and Kerala show improved learning outcomes after targeted investments.
2. Regulate the Private Sector: Enforce fee regulation laws, transparency norms, and teacher qualification standards. Crack down on exploitative private coaching centres; integrate tutoring into school support systems. Introduce Learning Outcome Guarantees linked to school recognition.
3. Reduce Financial Barriers: Targeted education vouchers, DBT-based scholarships, and transport allowances for poor households. Expand Samagra Shiksha to cover coaching support for disadvantaged groups.
4. Address Shadow Education Inequality: Strengthen remedial teaching, foundational literacy & numeracy under NIPUN Bharat. Leverage AI-enabled personalised learning tools for low-income children (as piloted in Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh).
5. Enhance Governance and Teacher Quality:  Recruit trained teachers; incentivise rural postings.Institute performance-linked professional development and teacher mentoring systems.

Conclusion

As Nobel laureate Amartya Sen argues in Development as Freedom, equitable education underpins capability expansion. NSS evidence underscores that only strong public systems can prevent unequal access and secure inclusive national development.