A Good Reason Why to Study Abroad.

Pricewaterhouse Coopers report: Building Strong Partnerships states that India is one of the world’s fastest growing economies. Its population has a median age of 25, which means that over 550 million people are 25 years or younger. While this gives India a huge demographic edge, it also puts considerable pressure on its policy makers to ensure that the young population is given quality education that will empower the future generations to contribute to and participate in the growth of the country. Is India’s education system geared up for this massive task? Is it ready to meet the current and future challenges?

In India, the formal education system consists of 1 to 3 years of preschool, 10 years of school; 2 years of higher secondary school; 3 to 4 years for under-graduate degree followed by Masters, M.Phil and Ph.D degrees. The focus of this paper is on higher education and vocational education in India. India has one of the largest higher education infrastructures in the world with 388 universities / institutions affiliating some 17,000 colleges. Over 450,000 teachers teach 10 million students; third largest after the US and China. This number is growing rapidly. Programmes are offered in all major disciplines. Professional education is imparted with English as the medium of instruction. Prestigious institutions get to pick the very best students. Only 1 out of 200 applicants gets admission into the famed Indian Institutes of Technology. The figure of acceptance is about 1 out of 10 at MIT(USA). Stories of students not making it to IITs, but securing admission in Ivy League colleges in the U.S. are commonplace.

India’s higher education system has been a great asset – it has not only catered to the manpower needs of the economy and helped India become self reliant in several areas but its doctors, engineers and scientists have been spectacularly successful in the global arena. Clearly the higher education system has done a good job. But is it good enough for the very rapidly changing present and a very demanding future? Perhaps not and that is the key issue. While there has been a 113% increase in enrolment in higher education (from 4.95 million in 1990-91 to 10.58 million in 2001-02), the net enrollment ratio in 2005-06 is still a mere 9.7% While we spend a meagre 0.37% of our GDP on education, developed countries like Canada spend 1.88% of GDP on higher education alone.

Turning our focus to primary education, India presents a dismal picture. Article 8 of the Indian Constitution mandates universal primary education. Yet, 41 per cent of children do not reach class 5 in India. In this respect, India fares worse than Gambia (20%), Mali (18%), Senegal (15%), Tanzania (17%) and Burkina Faso (25%). Further, the literacy rate in India is lower than that of many other developing countries. Many argue that the development of higher education in India has been at the cost of primary education. Higher education is highly subsidized by the Government – fees at universities have not been revised for several years. At present only 5% of the total cost of operating a university is generated through fees.

Yet there is a woeful lack of quality higher education institutions, giving rise to severe competition for entry. Admission to reputed colleges is extremely difficult; one such college in Delhi rejected students who scored less than 95% in their school leaving examination for its bachelors course in economics. This level of competition has resulted in increasing numbers of students seeking higher education overseas – US, Australia and UK being the chief destinations. It has been estimated that Indian students spend approximately USD 4 billion on education overseas every year. In 2004-05, about 80,000 Indian students were studying at US universities comprising roughly 14% of the international students there. A considerable percentage of this student group ultimately settles down overseas – a migration of talent and resources that India can do without.

There are two key issues on higher education in India.

1. The need to expand the infrastructure to provide quality education to much larger numbers and

2. The need to recognize that the Government alone will not be able to do so and it must seek out partners from within and outside India and that partners will come only when they are made to feel welcome.

These two issues are well debated and well understood. India’s policy makers now need to muster the will to do what is necessary to effect changes.

India needs to expand its educational infrastructure at all levels. Towards this end the Indian Government needs to seek out partners both within and abroad. India needs to put much more emphasis on Vocational Education and Training to bring about a transformation in its manufacturing sector and build entrepreneurship. A major expansion of the vocational education programme is the need of the hour.