Much has been spoken and written of India’s “demographic dividend.” With almost 40% of the population – around 500 million people – under the age of 15, it is estimated that around 25% of the global workforce will be Indian by 2030. What this means is that the quality of education that young Indian children are receiving today is going to impact us all in the near future.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has committed to significantly enhancing outlays for the education sector and Human Resource Development Minister Kabil Sibal even came out with some bold, interesting proposals for education reform. For a time, there was spirited debate in the country on the measures needed to be taken but the government is yet to move forward on key policy decisions. Many commentators attribute the United Progressive Alliance government’s reluctance to political caution. There is, for instance, considerable opposition to allowing foreign investment in higher education.
The government has responded by commissioning studies and setting up a maze of committees to decide the best course of action. These are convenient tools to delay any sort of commitment and to buy time. Unfortunately, an arcane regulatory framework and a fractured polity only help matters in this case. But it would be difficult to overstate how important it is for India to act swiftly in order to reap the full benefits of its demographic slant.
The scale of education reform required in India is massive and, yes, sustainable change will take time as well as a broad-based consensus. But to get the ball rolling, there are a number of short-term steps that the government can begin immediately:
1. Commit to spending more on education. Way back in 1968, the Kothari Commission recommended that India spend 6% of its Gross Domestic Product on education. However, in the 43 years since, India’s total educational outlays have never exceeded 4.3% of its GDP in any given year. Setting aside more funds for education is a critical first step that will demonstrate the government’s commitment to educational reform.
2. Fix primary education first. There are two major tasks here: raising enrollment to 100% in urban as well as rural areas; and then minimizing drop-outs. Both need to work in tandem to be meaningful. In Mumbai, for instance, enrollment rates are very high – above 95% — but only a fraction of these students actually finish school due to absurdly high drop-out rates. In addition, eliminating gender gaps at this early stage must be a priority. Shockingly, in some rural areas, thousands of young girls do not attend school because there are no separate toilets for them. Other girls do not attend because the walk to school – often in a neighboring village – is unsafe.
3. Yes, the answer is building more schools with better infrastructure. But even as the government and private institutions are building more schools, the quality of instruction is falling sharply. Teacher training needs a great deal of work and effort. Here, it is heartening to see the number of NGOs that are rushing to fill this gap but most of these efforts are still confined to urban areas, and especially large metropolitan cities. We need high-quality instruction to produce high-quality students capable of playing active roles in a rapidly growing country.
4. Prioritize schooling over higher education. In the early 50s, Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, decided to build out India’s higher education platform to compete technologically in the Cold War era. Under his direction, institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology were expanded and the country focused on producing more engineers and scientists. But the expansion of higher education was accompanied by a neglect of school education. This continues today, with new engineering colleges mushrooming every day. Schools are often viewed as little more than a means to gain access to a solid engineering program. This remarkable trend has had far-reaching effects.
Sure, we have been in a better position to benefit from the information technology revolution over the last decade. And we have sent numerous graduates abroad, where their successes have enhanced India’s “soft power.” However, even with our focus on higher education, India still faces severe shortages of skilled manpower in areas like health, aviation and engineering which are leading to economic bottlenecks. The problem is that graduates are not of a high enough caliber. Businesses cannot rely on the talent of their fresh intake and are forced to design expensive in-house training programs.
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