Bureaucracies in every field have been very counterproductive. It’s true of education too. Gravy trains abound in every society.

Private schools and colleges take Huge chunk out of our incomes. And I’m not convinced they deliver ‘better’ results.

My point about government involvement is very specific. The bar for excellence has to be raised. In every department. Education is part of a social contract with the people. A necessity. More so in developing countries. India had a growth spurt because Nehru had a vision for India. IITs, institutes of Technology, mushroomed all over India. They provided excellent state of the art education at a very minimal tuition fees. As a result, far-flung rural areas surprised the world with brilliant graduates. Here in America, I’m not sure who decides on Syllabi for public schools, but it’s totally deficient in quality. And educationists need better training. It’s probably not for lack of money — bureaucracies eat up huge budgets. There you’re right.