Quality Education To all - a myth or reality?

The world was taken a back when it read Goldman Sachs report, in 2001 that the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries would dominate the global economy pushing aside the developed countries like USA, Japan, Germany, UK etc. and that China would emerge as the World No.1 Super economic power and India securing the 3rd position by 2050. The report also had rudely shaken the developed the countries like USA, Japan, Russia and China, that they would suffer for want of Quality human resources for 56 million jobs by 2019 and the void will be filled up by the quality skilled human resources from India. It also added, India's population would be its major source of strength and no more its weakness, with vast number of youngsters with exemplary knowledge and employability skills.

India Shining:

The present scenario is that despite the global oil price crossing $120 per barrel and Indian inflation rate at 7 plus, Indian economy growth is expected to be phenominal 8.5%, as against the US present GDP growth of 0.6%. While the sub-prime negative impact is sweeping all over the world, its impact on India is very minimal. While the world is witnessing a silent tsunami of food crisis, India is expected to have a bumber crop with a huge pile of buffer stock of grains. The present global GDP is estimated at $47 trillion. India has secured the distinction of joining the trillion dollar economy club securing the 12th position in the World.

The Flip Side:

These figures are really astounding and may make people to think that India is making all round progress in economy, education, human resources development etc. But, let us have a look at the darker side of the picture.

With about 4.5 lacs engineers, 45 lacs graduates coming out of colleges every year and about 93% of children of the age group 6-14 in schools and achieving 67% literacy rate, things appear to be rosy. But, only 25% of the engineering graduates and 10% of other graduates are employable. Even if a person takes two hours to write and read his name, he is considered as literate, as per norms. Unemployability is much more serious than Un-employment problem. While the unemployment of youth is just 8%, more than 50% of employed youth lack employability skills viz., communication skills, analytical problem solving abilities and domain expertise. Industries have to spend 1% to 2% of their turn over for skills development and many youth after colleges have to necessarily develop skills through "Finishing Schools". 90% of the students have only "bookish knowledge" as per a labour report by a staffing company TEAM - LEASE. With less than 3% of the students prefering science subjects, Indian research contributed a mere 2.16% of the world's science & technology publications between 1993-2004.

Whither Right to Education?

Six decades after Indian constitution promised free, compulsory, quality education to all children upto 14 years and 6 years after the constitution amendment to Right to Education as fundamental right, the Government is yet to pass legal enactment to give effect to this and make Quality Education to all such children. The 11th five year plan agenda paper admits that quality education has eluded most children. The UNESCO's global monitoring report 2005 ranks Finland, Canada, Cuba and Korea as countries having delivered high quality education. The UN Human resources report ranks India at an abysmally low level of 128. It is sad, right from school level, academic competency does not include cultural competency and most remain as "Frogs in the well", without knowing what is happening globally. This is going to be a major challenge according to Daniel J Curran, President of University of Dayton, US.

According to NCERT survey, Tamilnadu showed a decrease of 8.61% in learning achievement from the National Baseline Survey 2001-2002. Right to Education upto 14 years is expected to cost Rs.2.25 lacs of crores, according to Kapil Sibil Committee and the Government is wondering as to how to raise this fund. We are very much focussed on More Of The Same (MOTS) on syllabus, examination pattern, instead of correct method of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), regrets Ashok Gangully, Chairman, CBSE. The global teacher shortage is 35 million and India's privation in this regard is 10 million.

High Dropout Rates:

School drop out rate is 36% at elementary level, 31.4% never pursue studies beyond 8th standard, high and higher secondary school drop out is 52.8%. The enrollment after schooling for higher education is shockingly 7% to 8%, as against the global average of over 25%. According to National University of Education, Planning and Administration (NUEPA) report on elementary education for 2005-2006, 32,000 schools do not have a single student, 69,353 schools have less than 25 students, and 1,70,888 schools have between 26 and 50 students. More than 38% of dropped out students feel "education is boring due to lack of quality".

Hansa Media Research Users Council data, says 20% of 2.5 crores of boys in the age group of 18 and 25 studied upto 12 classes have willingly joined naxal groups as they feel that education does not make them "value right". Nearly 200 out of 600 districts in India are under the control of naxalities- a serious threat to National security.


Trailing Behind:

Now, the father of BRIC report, Jim O'Neil says, "India trails far behind Russia, China and Brazil, in Education ranking on par with average developing countries".

With the scrapping of Common Entrance Test in Tamilnadu, the failure in the first year engineering course is more than 30%, which speaks poor quality of students from schools joining profesional courses. But the CBSE students perform well in the All India Entrance Examination.

An Urgent Need for Change:

With the bureaucratic set-up not willing to lose virtual control over education,innovative methods like semester, assignments, projects, continous assessment are never implemented. Research reveals that modern method of education calls for more frequent evaluation and not the "Garbage In Garbage Out" exam system - a yearly ritual.

As regards the proposed uniform syllabus in Tamilnadu, NCERT Chairman, Krishna Kumar himself expresses doubts about its success, unless a thorough and detailed research is made. Sam Pitroda, Chairman of NKC, says, "Our country is too large, too complex, and too diverse, for one-size-fits-all-solutions".

Different dimensional definitions are emerging for quality education. Skills development is short-term and is about training. It does not serve long-term needs. But education is involved in imparting correct method of managment, to perform different skills from what they learnt. Thus, education teaches people to solve problems on long term basis and skills development does not do that. "English learning is not to be seen as a part of any colonial baggage but it is an effective tool which allows people to access to professional skills or quality education and cultural opportunities. India is incredible as world's highest English speaking country, bigger than USA and UK put together", according to Rod Pryde, Director, British Council India. "There is a need for all stake holders to come together to ensure that India continues to position itself as knowledge capital of the world", says Ramalinga Raju, founder, Sathyam computers.

Thus, it is very clear Quality Education for All is a Myth, but, the honest rulers with pragmatic approach can make it as a Reality.

Do we see the writing on the wall?

This article has been published in THE HINDU, on Saturday, the 24th May 2008, in a special Educational issue, SCHOLAR.

Comment by: THE HINDU:

“Is quality education available in India? How employable are our graduates? Do we need more innovative teaching methods? Dr N Ramasubramanyan, an expert in the field of education, debunks the quality education theory.”