That goes against what I heard from my Indian friends. I was told that public schools are actually more prestigious than private schools, they are more rigorous apparently?

According to a commenter up-thread, what Americans call "public schools" are referred to as "government schools", and what Americans call "private schools" are referred to as "public schools".

Probably a carryover in terminology from Britain, where extremely prestigious schools like Eton are called "public schools" for historical reasons.

> where extremely prestigious schools like Eton are called "public schools" for historical reasons.

In the UK public and private referred to who could access the schools (assuming they had the money), whereas in the US they refer to how the schools are funded.

Now the UK has a kludge. The former private schools don't really exist, they've mainly changed into independent fee-paying public schools not controlled or funded by the state.

In the meantime (i.e. centuries ago), the state started funding schools, including religiously selective schools and has been increasingly giving more independence to the schools it funds.

What would be an example of a non public private school (even in the past?). I assumed the terms are basically synonymous in the UK?

> I assumed the terms are basically synonymous in the UK?

No, 'public school' would be understood to refer only to the most elite of private schools in the UK, such as Eton, Harrow, Winchester, etc. A run-of-the-mill private school would not be considered to be a public school.

> public schools are actually more prestigious than private schools

They are, but they are still private schools, not government schools. They are based in British public schools, where the word 'public' refers to the fact that students of any religion could historically be admitted to them, not that they are state-owned or state-controlled.

Could this be a terminology issue? Similar to the UK “public” school is what we’d call “private” in the US.

This is true for public colleges/unis (IITs, JNU...etc), they are prestigious, but not public schools

It depends. Some private schools like Delhi Public School Barakhamba are extremely prestigious, but making a private school is very easy so quality control is trash.

Sometimes private schools can be shittier than the government run schools (eg. in the town my family is from in Himachal) but in other places the private schools will at least not have absentee teachers (a common issue in much poorer regions of India).

P.S. the public school moniker for some Indian private schools is a holdover from the British era. Most modern private schools don't call themselves "public" anymore - they prefer being called "International Schools".

Public colleges are prestigious

Public schools are a joke and you would usually find kids mocking anyone slightly unsophisticated as “from a government (public) school”

Some public universities like the IIT's, some NIT's, ISI (Indian Statistical Institute, not the intelligence agency), and some other public schools in other fields are prestigious. The public K-12 schools are mostly a joke.

Both public and private schools in India use NCERT books and have the same examinations. Private schools only ensure things are taught better, what is taught is still the same.

In my experience, government schools are far more likely to be state government schools than central government schools, and so they are more likely use the local state board's curriculum instead those of the CBSE or ICSE.

Depends on the State. For example in Delhi, a number of Govt of Delhi operated schools will use CBSE curriculum as well.