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| MIT's Banerjee: The future
is bleak |
It is
one of the most mystifying paradox of our times-the Indian economy,
powered in large measure by its knowledge industries, is expanding
at over 9 per cent per annum; the country has moe than a billion
people, half of them under 25 years of age. Yet, there's a major
shortage of skilled workers in this country. Mind you, we're not
talking here just of rocket scientists and the like; good plumbers,
carpenters and brick layers are proving as hard to find in large
numbers as people higher up the knowledge ladder. Another paradox:
world class educational institutions like the IIMs, the IITs and
a few others exist as microscopic islands of excellence amidst the
general decay and rot that characterises the country's education
landscape. In this chasm between the possibility and reality resides
a sorry tale of missed opportunities.
"India compares very unfavourably with
its peers in indicators of educational attainment at all levels.
Both spending and the efficiency of spending on education remain
weak," says a recent Goldman Sachs report on Indi
ra. The country
is still struggling to scale up its investment on education to
6 per cent of GDP from 3.8 per cent at present. And this may prove
to be a very costly oversight in the years and decades to follow.
The Goldman Sachs report adds that in 2000, the working-age population
in India, had, on average, attended 5.1 years of school, compared
to 6.4 years in China and 6.8 years in Malaysia. "The demographic
dividend may not materialise if India fails to educate its people,"
Goldman Sachs report warns.
| A PRESCRIPTION
FOR CHANGE |
| The Prime Minister's Knowledge
Commission has made the following recommendations to energise
the education sector: |
| HIGHER EDUCATION
Target: 1,500 universities by 2015.
Set up Independent Regulatory Authority for Higher Education
(IRAHE) in tandem with the overhaul of the University Grants
Commission.
Scale up government support for higher education to at
least 1.5 per cent, if not 2 per cent of GDP, by 2012.
Fees should meet at least 20 per cent of an university's
expenditure; these should be adjusted every two years through
price indexation.
Change tax and trust laws to incentivise corpus building
by universities.
Create at least 10 National universities over the next
3 years, and 50 over the long term.
Reform existing public universities and undergraduate
colleges.
Universities should revise or restructure curricula at
least once in three years.
VOCATIONAL EDUCATIONAL TRAINING (VEC)
Increase total spend on VEC to 10-15 per cent of the total
education spend.
Levy a cess on employers (as in Singapore) or make it
mandatory for companies to invest in training (as in South
Korea).
Set up a National Institute of Vocational Education Planning
and Development to formulate strategy, advise government
and undertake R&D.
Appoint an independent regulatory agency for VEC.
Maintain an electronic database of certified training
providers and certified workers. |
It's a no-brainer that the education sector could
do with massive spurts in funding; but there's an even more urgent
need to ensure that existing and future investments are used efficiently
and reach the intended beneficiaries. The government recognises
its limitations and is now looking at alternate sources of investment.
"We can't wait any longer. We must experiment with several
things," says Kris Gopalakrishnan, Director, Infosys Technologies,
one of India's leading knowledge companies.
The urgency seems to have carried to the corridors
of power. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram is expected to increase
gross budgetary support for education by about 30 per cent to
over Rs 31,000 crore in his forthcoming Union Budget. There is
also a move to liberalise investments in higher education level.
Ironically, the more the economy grows, the more the real extent
of the problem becomes apparent.
| Laws Discourage
Private Initiative |
| Unless the government recognises
the profit motive as a legitimate one, education in India
will continue to languish.
|
| The law stipulates that a private sponsoring
body can set up a society, charitable trust or Section 25
company which can provide education to those requiring it.
The key requirement is that profits from the venture have
to be reinvested in the venture; i.e., they cannot be distributed
as dividends.
The government's "no commercialisation of education"
policy is a major roadblock to greater private sector participation
in this field.
Policy-makers are considering allowing foreign investments
in higher education but they cautiously temper that proposal
with the requirement for a level playing field for Indian
players.
Expert groups have recommended a public-private partnership
model as the way forward.
The Birlas run 45 schools, 10 vocational training centres
and BITS, Pilani. Many other corporate houses, notably the
Tatas, the Bajajs, the Ambanis and the Singhanias, among
others, run schools, colleges and other educational institutions
across the country, but all of them are part of their corporate
social responsibility initiatives. |
Primary Colours
The real problem begins at the elementary school
level. The statistics, though, look rosy at first sight. Over
95 per cent of children between ages 5 and 10 are enrolled in
schools and there is a school within 1 km of every habitation,
barring a few in Bihar and Rajasthan.
However, that is where the good news ends. "Children
learn little and what they do comes too late. Whereas they are
expected to learn to read fluently by the end of Standard 2, only
about 50 per cent can read fluently even in Standard 5,"
says Madhav Chavan, Trustee of Pratham Mumbai Education Initiative,
an NGO working for the education of underprivileged children.
"Neither the syllabus nor the teaching methods are adjusted
for that. Hence, most children in class are utterly lost,"
says Abhijit Banerjee, Professor of Economics & Director,
Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, MIT. No surprise then that
about 70 per cent students drift away by the time they reach Standard
8 (See The Mess in Education).
The government is pursuing its aim of universalising
elementary education through its flagship programme, called Sarva
Shiskha Abhiyan, and the Mid-day Meal Scheme wherein cooked meals
are provided to children who attend school. Says Bhalchandra Mungekar,
Member, Planning Commission: "These schemes have dramatically
reduced the drop-out rate at schools over the last two years."
The number of out-of-school children in the 6-14 years age group
has dropped from 13.4 million in 2005 to 7.06 million in end-March
2006.
Rajendra Pawar, Chairman, NIIT, one of India's
leading purveyors of knowledge, is ready to believe this magical
rise in gross numbers. "Do not forget the parallel system
that is flourishing," he says. Over the last decade, there
has been a virtual mass movement towards private schools, say
education experts.
But there are problems galore. If government schools
are afflicted by creaky infrastructure, absent or apathetic teachers
and general lack of verve, then their private counterparts are
afflicted by a wide variance in standards and the fees charged.
However, "private schools at least impart education and that
is because there is a functioning chain of accountability,"
says Anurag Behar, Corporate Vice President, Mission Quality,
Corporate Brand & Innovation, Wipro Technologies. So, it does
seem as if the numbers issue at least is being addressed, even
if imperfectly.
Vocational Intent
The inability of the system to deliver relevant
and quality education disillusions and disappoints a large section
of the addressable population by the time they reach Standard
8. The formal system does not address these issues. And there
is no way of switching to vocational streams. "There has
to be convergence between mainstream education and vocational
training. Currently, if someone fails Standard 10, his entire
education is lost," says Mungekar.
Cultural issues aggravate the shortage. "There
is a social barrier to vocational education. Technical staff hesitate
to roll up their sleeves and work with their hands," says
Murlidhar Rao, President and COO, NIS Sparta, one of India's largest
corporate training companies.
The country has 6,500-odd Industrial Training Institutes
that impart vocational training. Yet, they teach only 100-120
trades, compared to about 4,500 in China. Moreover, there is a
mismatch of skills imparted in these institutions with market
demand. The course curriculum and equipment are also outdated.
"These boys are far, far away from the current technology
that is being used in their respective fields. One has to put
them through at least 6 months of on-the-job training to get them
work-ready," says S.Y. Siddiqui, Head (HR), Maruti, which
has hired about 800 automobile technicians from ITIs over the
last 18 months. It is now taking over the management of four such
institutes in Haryana. At the vocational training level, move
towards certification bodies and adoption of standards hold the
key to success. The government has decided to set up a National
Skills Mission to address these issues.
Tertiary Education
The Knowledge Commission's report late last year
found that only 8 per cent of our population, in the 18-24 years
age group, reaches the higher education level-half the average
for the Asian region. India has around 350 universities and about
17,700 undergraduate colleges. Though quantity is an issue (See
We Have a Long Way to Go), the quality of graduates coming out
of these institutions is equally worrying. According to nasscom,
only a quarter of the technical graduates and 10-15 per cent of
general college graduates are suitable for employment in the offshore
it and BPO industries.
Yet the situation is not entirely without hope.
Vivek Wadhwa, Executive-in-Residence and Adjunct Professor at
Duke University (US), points out that multinationals are able
to hire from a majority of Indian universities; they simply put
graduates through special training programmes to compensate for
the quality problems. "Graduates from comparable Chinese
universities are simply unemployable," he says.
Granting universities autonomy can improve the
situation. "The government has created excellent tertiary
institutions; it is time now to give them academic and financial
freedom so that they can be independent," says Ajit Rangnekar,
Deputy Dean, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
Yet, functional autonomy is a difficult issue for
most governments to cope with as was evident from the very public
spat between the HRD Ministry and the IIMs. The disproportionate
public emphasis on the IITs and the IIMs also underlines our national
obsession with these premier institutions at the expense of other
centres of higher learning. "President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam,
Infosys Chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy, and Knowledge Commission
Chairman Sam Pitroda have all studied at private colleges. We
really need to shake off this obsession with the IITs and IIMs
and realise that private institutes are as good," says Y.S.
Rajan, Executive Director, TIFAC.
Solutions
 |
| Infosys' Gopalakrishnan (left) and
NIIT's Pawar: Need for nifty reforms |
If there were magic bullets then just two would
suffice to fix the education story-improving the delivery channels
for public education and opening the floodgates for foreign and
private investments in the sector.
While there is scope for private sector participation
across the education value chain, the government will have to
shoulder a major share of the burden. "The biggest issue
in the education sector is scarcity of good teachers. We need
to increase salaries to attract good people to join," says
Infosys' Gopalakrishnan. Then, technology can be used to enforce
attendance. Says MIT's Banerjee: "Teachers should sign in
using fingerprint readers three times a day; those who fail to
do so on a given day should be declared absent." Finding
a way to help poor children receive after-school tuitions is also
necessary. "The government can give tuition vouchers to all
poor families; these should be used only in recognised tuition
centres," says Banerjee.
And if education and jobs are linked up, then the
financial issue also automatically gets solved. NIIT's Pawar points
to a financial services course launched by the education and training
company where the student gets an appointment letter from a financial
services company on enrolment for the NIIT course. At stake is
the ability of the student to complete the course.
But such solutions will become universal only if
the government must muster up the political will to shed old shibboleths.
The situation is reaching crisis proportions, but it is not beyond
redemption.
-additional reporting by E. Kumar
Sharma and Pallavi Srivastava
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