By Dr. Caroline Mathew, Retd. Principal, Nirmala Sr. Sec. School
The Andaman & Nicobar Islands, long admired for their natural beauty and strong educational infrastructure, are now facing a crisis that threatens the integrity of schooling: the unchecked commercialization of education. Parents, teachers, and educationists are raising alarms about exploitative practices in private schools, particularly the manipulation of textbook sales, which has given rise to what many describe as a “book-selling mafia.”
The Mirage of Private Schooling: Parents often choose private schools believing they offer discipline, English fluency, and superior results. In reality, many of these institutions lack adequate infrastructure, underutilize libraries, and employ teachers with little professional development. The preference is sustained more by marketing than by substance, leaving families burdened with exorbitant fees for education that is often inferior to what government schools provide.
By contrast, government-run institutions such as Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navy Children School, as well as Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalayas strictly follow NCERT textbooks, ensuring affordability, uniformity, and quality along with a few supporting books. Their consistent success in board examinations demonstrates that expensive private publications are unnecessary.
Private Tuitions: Private tuitions play a decisive role in shaping the academic outcomes of private schools. In recent years, many institutions have entered into formal tie-ups with large coaching centres, integrating their programs directly into the school timetable. Under this arrangement, parents pay additional fees, and coaching centre faculty conduct sessions during regular school hours. This model appeals to parents, who feel reassured that their children can receive specialized coaching without the burden of attending classes after school, thereby allowing more time at home while still keeping pace with competitive academic demands.
Exploitation Through Textbooks: The most visible form of commercialization is the textbook racket. Despite CBSE’s mandate to use NCERT books, many private schools prescribe costly alternatives, often chosen for profit rather than pedagogy.
Reported Irregularities in 2026:
• On-campus sales: St. Mary’s School reportedly sold books through Krishna Book Centre, run by a teacher’s family, despite government orders banning such practices.
• Reintroduction of outdated titles: Books removed from NCERT lists (Bal Ram Katha, Bal Mahabharat, Bharat Ki Khoj) have resurfaced in the book lists of St. Mary’s School and Kamaraj English Medium School, allegedly to clear vendor stock.
• Frequent changes in book lists: Parents are forced to repurchase books due to sudden changes. For example, Wings of Knowledge, GK book, was initially sold to parents at Kamaraj School, only to be replaced weeks later.
Manipulated titles: Subtle changes in book names (Vyakaran Vatika vs. Vyakan Latika) prevent other booksellers from supplying the parents, ensuring vendor exclusivity.
• Price inflation: Affordable NCERT books are replaced with expensive alternatives, for instance, Frank’s Everyday Science priced at ₹750 replacing NCERT’s Curiosity at ₹65 in Carmel School.
All major private schools in Port Blair, including St. Mary’s School, Kamaraj School, Carmel School, Sagritara School, RGT Public Vidyalaya, and Saraswati Shishu Mandir etc., are reportedly tied to a single vendor, Krishna Book Centre on commission basis. Parents queue for five to six hours, only to be told they must purchase full sets of books and notebooks costing ₹5,000–₹6,000. Individual purchases are refused. Publishers are allegedly pressured not to supply selected titles to other booksellers, leaving parents running from shop to shop in vain.
Parents are compelled to buy entire book sets and stationeries, from designated vendors. Independent bookstores cannot help because private schools refuse to publish official book lists online, denying transparency and fair competition. Even publishers are warned by the schools and vendor, not to supply the titles being used in the selected schools to other book shops, or else their books would be deleted from the book-list during the next session.
Parents often complain that from the list of selected private books by schools, many books often remain untouched and they are not taught throughout the year. Parents fear to raise this issue as their wards could come to the limelight, and could be dealt with strong hands.
Many times, parents have few titles from their elder children or from the children of their relatives. Then they prefer to get the other titles. But the vendor insists that they should buy the entire set, and he would not give few titles. The parents, run from one book store to the other, but due to non-availability of book lists, other shops are unable to cater to their needs.
Parents also complain that if they do not purchase the books from their ear-marked vendor, the school would not sign the reimbursement forms of the students. Such being the ground realities, what can the poor parents do!
Exploitation of Teachers: The recruitment system for government teachers inadvertently fuels this cycle. Fresh graduates, despite holding degrees and training, are sidelined in favour of experienced candidates. To gain experience, many young teachers accept low-paying jobs in private schools, where they are exploited for meagre salaries. Private schools benefit from their qualifications while denying them fair compensation, perpetuating a cycle of exploitation.
The Missing Oversight: While the administration has ensured strong infrastructure standards, academic monitoring remains weak. Once recognition is granted, schools operate with little oversight in areas such as textbook selection, syllabus completion, and teaching practices. This neglect allows commercialization to thrive unchecked.
The Way Forward: Reforms are urgently needed to protect families and restore trust in the education system:
• Strict enforcement of basic NCERT textbooks in all schools.
• Transparent book selection processes, with lists published online.
• Competitive recruitment exams for teachers to prevent exploitation.
• Bans on tuition during school hours.
• Regular academic audits and financial transparency.
• Oversight committees of experienced educationists to approve book lists.
These measures align with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which emphasizes affordable, equitable, and high-quality education while curbing commercialization.
Conclusion
Unchecked commercialization in Andaman schools is not just about inflated costs, it is a systemic issue that compromises transparency, fairness, and the very spirit of education. As it is aptly observed: When a doctor is negligent, a patient dies; but when the education system is negligent, the consequences affect the entire society. Therefore, such practices must be addressed with urgency and accountability.
The Andaman Administration must act decisively to dismantle the book-selling mafia, safeguard parents from exploitation, and ensure that schools serve the cause of nation-building rather than private profit.
