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Introduction

Private schools now educate nearly one-third of India’s students, with their share exceeding 50% in several southern states—highlighting their indispensable role in the country’s education system. A large segment of these students, estimated at 70–85%, attend Low-Fee Private Schools (LFPS) that cater to low- and middle-income families. These schools typically operate with lean budgets, modest infrastructure, and deep community ties.

Despite their widespread reach and importance, LFPS operate under significant regulatory and financial strain. They must navigate a complex maze of regulations—from stringent land and infrastructure requirements to teacher qualification norms, fee restrictions, and bureaucratic approval processes. These compliance-focused mandates often ignore the realities faced by LFPS and emphasize inputs over outcomes, such as learning achievements and teaching quality.

Learning Outcomes: A System-Wide Challenge

The problem isn’t isolated. According to the National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2024, only 29% of Grade 6 students could solve basic fractions, and just 31% of Grade 9 students could identify number sets. These figures signal a system-wide crisis in learning, not confined to LFPS, but affecting all types of schools across India.

NEP 2020 and the Call for Reform

Recognizing this gap, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 called for a paradigm shift from input-centric to outcome-oriented regulation. It emphasized the need for learning-focused reforms and recommended establishing State School Standards Authorities (SSSAs) to drive this vision.

However, five years since NEP’s introduction, the implementation of this reform agenda remains patchy and uneven across states.

Aim of the Webinar

As India works toward improving educational outcomes and fulfilling the NEP vision, several critical questions must be addressed:

• What truly drives student learning?

• What systemic barriers continue to stifle quality?

• How can we rethink regulations, empower budget schools, and ensure accountability through outcomes, not checkboxes?

This webinar aims to assess the regulatory challenges faced by budget schools and LFPS, explore the progress and gaps in NEP implementation regarding school regulation, discuss policy innovations, pedagogical changes & assessment reforms needed for the next phase, and facilitate a dialogue among educators, policy experts, regulators, and school leaders.

KEY DISCUSSION POINTS

• What factors drive meaningful learning outcomes for students? And what are some systemic barriers embedded in policy, regulation, and practice that impede the improvement of educational quality across schools?
• What defines “minimum” or “basic” infrastructure in Indian school education, and are these standards aligned with the realities of low-fee private schools?
• With the widespread teacher deficit in India, is it time to rethink traditional pathways into the profession? What meaningful reforms are needed in the teacher education ecosystem to attract more candidates into the profession while also ensuring quality?
• How can we redesign systems to reward improvements in student learning rather than just compliance with administrative norms?
• What role can educational technology play in enhancing instruction, particularly in low-resource settings where pedagogical capacity may be limited?
• How close are we to implementing NEP 2020’s vision of shifting from infrastructure-focused regulation to one based on learning outcomes?
• Why has the transition toward SSSAs, intended to simplify and outcome-align school regulation, been so limited across states, and what structural barriers are impeding their rollout?

SPEAKERS

Prof Geeta Gandhi Kingdon

Managing Director of City Montessori School, Lucknow

Geeta Gandhi Kingdon is Professor (part-time) at the UCL Institute of Education, University College London, where she holds the Chair of Education and International Development. Prior to this, she worked for 10 years at the Department of Economics, University of Oxford.

She has a BSc Hons. in Economics from the London School of Economics, and MSc and DPhil in Development Economics from the University of Oxford.

Her research interests are in the economics of education in developing countries, particularly in South Asia and Africa. She has investigated school effectiveness, gender in education, labour market outcomes of education, and the political economy of education.

Based on her research, Professor Kingdon advises donor agencies such as the World Bank, EU, and the UK-AID on their education-related aid to developing countries. She has frequently been an advisor to the Indian central and state governments. She has recently been a member of a 7-member Expert Group at India’s Niti Ayog (Planning Commission) for school education. She has been a member of the Education Ministry’s ‘Joint Review Missions’ of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the Universal Basic Education for All programme, and of the Secondary Education programme. She is a member of the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Government’s Committee for the Implementation of the National Education Policy, chaired by the Deputy Chief Minister of UP, and has served on the High Level Committee for advising the government on attracting private investment into Higher Education.

Professor Kingdon frequently writes opinion editorials in newspapers, having published in the recent past in The New York Times and in influential Indian daily broadsheets such as The Times of India, The Indian Express, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, and The Economic Times.

Apart from extensive refereeing for academic journals and for research-grant applications, she serves on the editorial board of economics journals, and has raised or co-raised research grants from DFID, the Spencer Foundation, Nuffield Foundation, Sutton Trust, Rowntree Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, Ford Foundation, World Bank, and the European Union.

In 2013, Professor Kingdon was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Kingston University London for “her outstanding contributions to education and development”.

Professor Kingdon also works as President of City Montessori School, Lucknow, a non-profit registered society.

MODERATOR

Nissy Solomon

Hon Trustee (Research & Programs), CPPR

Nissy Solomon is the Hon. Trustee (Research & Programs) at the Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR), where she oversees research initiatives across health, education, mobility, and livelihoods, with a focus on governance and policy reform. She holds Master’s degrees in both economics and public policy, and enjoys mentoring young professionals and early-career researchers to engage effectively with the policymaking process.

Her work has been featured on leading media outlets like Deccan Herald, Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, and Moneycontrol, where she writes on a wide spectrum of policy issues.

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