WHY should parents take their children to private schools while struggling financially? The answer is not simple, but a highly complex one based on our socio-cultural parameters and sensibilities with which we live, grow up and interact with others.

There is a serious interplay of peer pressure, societal pressure, pressure from family and friend circles and acute unhealthy competitiveness to stand out from the others. Also, the parents want to see the unattainable success in their children that they dreamt about for themselves, but failed to achieve in life.

Through their child’s success they want to affirm their position in society to demonstrate that they are part of ‘the best’. It is all part of what we may loosely call the ‘I am the best’ syndrome. Our colonial mindset and selfish desires are the most potent factors behind such an attitude and set of preferences that make private schools thrive at the cost of their public-sector counterparts.

There is no denying the fact that poor management, maintenance and shabby performance of several state-run schools have contributed to these challenges.

Both mainstream and social media have become extremely powerful in recent times, forcing people to follow their especially-designed preferred choices and destinations described, rather than being able to take our decisions in life independently. Can this be denied?

Saikat Kumar Basu
Alberta, Canada

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2023