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By:

Sunjay Awate and Dr. Kishore Paknikar

23 October 2025 at 5:20:01 pm

Education for Sale, Conscience on Hold

Globalisation taught the world to look at India as a market first and a culture second. Beauty pageant crowns once signalled the discovery of a lucrative consumer base. A similar shift is unfolding in education, where India’s enormous learner population has turned schooling itself into an export opportunity for others and a purchasing decision for us. India is now the world’s most populous country and has the largest cohort of young people, a demographic fact that powerfully shapes how...

Education for Sale, Conscience on Hold

Globalisation taught the world to look at India as a market first and a culture second. Beauty pageant crowns once signalled the discovery of a lucrative consumer base. A similar shift is unfolding in education, where India’s enormous learner population has turned schooling itself into an export opportunity for others and a purchasing decision for us. India is now the world’s most populous country and has the largest cohort of young people, a demographic fact that powerfully shapes how governments and corporations view the education sector. With India projected by the UN to become the world’s most populous country by 2023, our classrooms represent the largest learner base on the planet. This is why headlines now highlight foreign campuses and cross-border degree pipelines. During the UK Prime Minister’s October 2025 visit, Britain confirmed that its universities will establish new campuses in India, calling this a growth opportunity for its economy—presenting higher education as a tradable service. At least two UK universities, Lancaster and Surrey, have received approval, with several more in discussions. The framework comes from the 2022–23 regulations that allowed select foreign universities to establish independent campuses, following early examples like Deakin University at GIFT City. The term “education export” reveals that degrees, brands, and syllabi now move across borders much like any other commodity. Coaching economy Yet, an abundance of providers does not equate to an abundance of education. Over the past few decades, coaching, once a modest aid for board exams, has grown into a parallel system that shapes academic futures and often impacts family finances. Kota’s expansion into a coaching hub exemplifies this shift, with a student population exceeding 150,000 before the pandemic and approximately 30 student suicides recorded in 2023. The market now starts before school and continues after graduation. ‘Garbha sanskar’ packages complement ‘nursery admissions consulting,’ followed by bundled test prep for IIT-JEE, NEET, UPSC, and state civil services. Each stage leads to hostels, study rooms, subscription platforms, and financing options. Meanwhile, public recruitment declines, and many graduates, including engineers, turn toward government exams, increasing demand for more coaching. The private cost of schooling rises, but the public benefits in scientific ability, civic skills, and social empathy are less certain. ASER 2023 found that over half of rural youth aged 14–18 cannot solve a basic three-digit division, and about a quarter struggle to read a Grade-II text fluently. Even as access expands, real learning often stalls. Moral compass This moral tension has long been identified by thinkers who saw education as more than just job training. Rabindranath Tagore insisted that learning must connect children with nature and community, allowing minds “to stumble upon and be surprised.” Jiddu Krishnamurti warned that conformity stifles intelligence; he believed the purpose of education is to help learners see through thought patterns that trap them. Both advocates emphasized curiosity and inner freedom over compliance. Sir Ken Robinson, in his famous 2006 TED Talk, echoed this concern: “Creativity is as important as literacy.” He noted that when schools suppress imagination, they produce generations of risk-averse adults. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam added an ethical perspective: “The purpose of education is to make good human beings with skill and expertise,” intentionally placing goodness before skill. Later, economist Amartya Sen offered a structured framework - the capability approach - which defines development as the expansion of people’s real freedoms. An education that limits options through fear or strict sorting, by this standard, is a failure. Measured against these standards, much of modern practice seems misaligned. Middle school students prepare for professional entrance exams before discovering their own interests. Parents choose brands instead of educational methods. Universities promote placements more than research labs. Employers complain that graduates lack problem-solving and writing skills. The highly educated often seem least connected to the community. We are marketing children for a market rather than preparing citizens for society. India’s path forward need not be nostalgic. It can rebuild purpose through evidence-based reform, by prioritizing educational intent over mere access. Foreign campuses permitted in India should invest part of their effort in strengthening domestic research, especially in basic sciences that fuel innovation. With its vast youth base, India can revive physics and mathematics alongside software studies, nurturing inquiry-driven rather than placement-driven learning. The tyranny of single-shot, high-stakes exams must give way to modular assessments that allow multiple attempts and feedback loops. International evidence shows that spreading evaluation over time improves both learning and mental health. Curiosity must be reintroduced into early education. Tagore’s nature-rich classrooms and Krishnamurti’s emphasis on self-awareness are now reflected in outdoor science lessons, local history walks, civic projects, school gardens, maker spaces and revival of art and music. Governments must invest profoundly in teachers. A teacher’s development, research time, and well-being must be regarded as national assets. Finally, recognize student mental health as essential infrastructure. Every district should have trained counsellors, confidential helplines, and parent education programs. The civic purpose of education also needs to be restored. An educated person should be able to identify species in a neighbourhood park, write a letter to a local government office, explain why local elections matter, and volunteer without expecting recognition. A system that prepares children solely for markets may produce efficient workers and anxious adults. A system that educates for freedom fosters confident innovators and compassionate citizens. Tagore wanted minds that could be surprised; Krishnamurti wanted minds that could be free; Robinson wanted schools that honour creativity; Kalam wanted education to make good human beings; Sen wanted development to be freedom. Learning, at its best, expands life itself. Unless we accept this truth, our children will grow up beautifully wrapped yet empty inside. (Sunjay Awate is an Editor with Lokmat, Pune; Dr Kishore Paknikar is the former Director, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune and Visiting Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. Views personal.)

Screens and Scream Time

In an age of digital overload, the real test of parenting may be in resisting the siren call of screens by beginning with the parents themselves.

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In living rooms across the world, a quiet epidemic is unfolding. Children, some barely able to walk, are being lulled into silence with the glow of a screen. Mobile phones, tablets and televisions have become the modern babysitters as they are convenient, effective and disturbingly addictive. But as the hours spent in front of these devices creep ever upwards, so too do the costs: attention spans dwindle, tempers flare, sleep cycles disintegrate and a generation grows up more digitally engaged than emotionally connected.


The world of parenting has always required a blend of instinct, structure and love. In today’s digital age, it demands something more: restraint. It is no longer enough to simply admonish children to “cut down screen time.” They are astute observers, and their first classroom is their parents. A mother scrolling through social media at the dinner table or a father glued to YouTube before bed sends an unspoken yet potent message that this is normal, acceptable or even aspirational. The change, therefore, must begin not with the child, but with the adult.


To reverse the rising tide of screen addiction, parents must lead by quiet example. This involves conscious decisions: to avoid screens in the child’s presence, to designate tech-free zones in the home, and to clearly differentiate work-related screen use from casual scrolling. A simple statement - “This is my office work” - may seem trivial, but it establishes boundaries. It teaches a critical lesson that screens are tools and not toys.


School, while crucial in shaping behaviour, is not the panacea. Children spend only four to six hours in classrooms; the rest of the day is governed by the home. If parents do not reinforce the values being taught at school, the lessons are diluted. Worse, they may be discarded altogether. The responsibility of shaping a child, therefore, lies equally between educators and parents. Neither can afford to abdicate their role.


The temptation to hand over a phone or tablet during a tantrum is strong, especially when the alternative is a messy, unpredictable outdoor game or a long, meandering conversation about dinosaurs. But real development is not tidy. It involves scraped knees, failed attempts and long questions with no easy answers. Children thrive not when they are pacified, but when they are engaged. Telling stories, playing outside, painting, crafting are not just pastimes, but investments in emotional and cognitive resilience.


There is also a more sinister side to early digital exposure. Research increasingly shows that excessive screen time correlates with poor concentration, difficulty in learning, and behavioural issues. Parents may mistake a toddler’s ability to swipe and tap as intelligence. In reality, it may be the first symptom of a dependency. One such case, recounted by a parent associated with an NGO where I was working, is cautionary. Their son, exposed to mobile phones since infancy, eventually needed the device to fall asleep, often hiding it under his pillow, waking up in the night to binge-watch videos. Initially hailed as ‘smart,’ the boy later struggled with academics, sleep and emotional regulation. Only when the habit became unmanageable did the family reckon with the consequences.


To be clear, the issue is not technology itself, but the unchecked immersion into it. Screens are not inherently evil. Used judiciously, they can educate, entertain, and even enrich. But for children, whose neurological and emotional foundations are still forming, unlimited access is toxic. They need unstructured play, human interaction and boredom. Yes, you heard right: boredom. For that is the fertile ground from which imagination and problem-solving emerge.


What, then, is the way forward? Not draconian bans, but a thoughtful balance. Children will grow up in a world that is more digital than ever before. But to meet it with clarity and resilience, they need anchors in form of parents who are present. They need routines that nurture them.


This is no longer just a parenting preference anymore but a public health imperative. The earlier we begin, the better. As with most things in childhood, timing matters.


Let the first step begin not with the child’s screen but with the parent’s.


(The writer is a Pune-based psychologist. Views personal.)

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