One of the biggest evils associated with the education sector has been the practice of parents bribing to get their children’s admittted to educational institutions. The Indian Corruption Study does not take into consideration bribes paid in recruitment, transfers and promotion of teachers.
The total monetary value of petty corruption in education (up to 12th) in the country is estimated to be Rs.4137 crore per year.
A total of 40% (8.2 crore) of households are estimated to have dealt with schools. Of them, 2.4 crore are urban households and 5.8 crore rural households. Of those interacting with educational institutions/ departments, 18% (1.5 crore households) claimed to have paid bribes. 19% (0.4 crore households) of the urban and 18% (1.1 crore households) of the rural households paid bribes.
The extent of corruption is much higher in case of states with low educational development
71% of all households having school going children are using government run schools. In rural areas, the dependence on government schools is higher at 77%.
71% of those who interacted with educational institutes had to make more than four visits to the department/institution. Of these, more than 34% needed to collect school leaving certificates.
21% respondents felt that very often mid-day meals in schools were either not provided or were of very poor quality.
40% of the respondents who used “alternative process” to get their work done belonged to the lower income group (up to 5,000 per month).
States were divided into three categories (High, Medium and Low) on education development index to understand if there was significant difference in the extent of corruption
High educational development states include
Kerala- 1.436
Himachal Pradesh- 1.423
Punjab- 1.295
Delhi- 1.275
Medium educational development states include
Maharashtra- 1.232
Tamil Nadu- 1.176
Gujarat- 1.166
Haryana- 1.164
West Bengal- 1.127
Karnataka- 1.096
Orissa- 1.076
Madhya Pradesh- 1.027
Low educational development states
Andhra Pradesh- 0.963
Rajasthan- 0.919
Uttar Pradesh- 0.853
Bihar- 0.828
Usage of government schools (up to 12th standard)
Overall, 71% of the households with school going children use government schools. Area-wise percentage of such households is 77 in rural and 56 in urban.
How many visits did you make?
71% of the respondents who interacted with educational institutes/ departments had to make four or more visits to the concerned educational institute / department to get their work done.
In case of private institutions, only about 50% had to make four or more visits.
More than half of the respondents making more than four visits to the educational institutes/ departments did so primarily to collect school leaving certificates.
Perceptions about the functioning of schools (upto 12th Std)
23% of those whose children are going to government educational institutions felt the quality of education to be poor.