Education, as Swami Vivekanand had remarked long back, is ‘the manifestation of perfection already in the child ’. Children’s young minds are not clean slates (‘tabula rasa’) on which teachers are to write their knowledge, attitudes, wishes, biases and values. When a child enters a school’s classroom, his social milieu also accompanies him/her. Primary socialisation in the family and neighbourhood has already taken place, and thereby certain basic letters, terms, behaviour and values are already inculcated in him. Obviously the child knows something and desires to know more and more about his surroundings and environment. The individual goals of education are cognitive (knowledge), affective (values) and skill formation while the collective goals are employability, socio-economic development, better quality of life, peace and social harmony, well-informed citizens’ participation in governance, national character and prosperity. For any productive activity, labour and entrepreneurship are as much required as land, capital and organisation. Labour is mainly of two types – manual and mental - though both are complementary to each other. However, one can do manual labour without specific skills but mental labour (skilled jobs) requires specific skills and training. Hence for getting skilled and semi- skilled jobs, one is to be educated and trained in a particular area and direction of knowledge.

Primary Education: India joined the club of developed/developing countries with compulsory education on 1st April, 2010 when Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (2009) became effective though Article 21A was inserted in Indian constitution through 86th amendment in 2002. Thus all children of 6-14 years are to get free education up to 8th standard (elementary education) and at the same time through Article 51A (K) it is the fundamental duty of all parents and guardians to send their children to schools. It also provides for better teacher-pupil ratio, opening of more schools, more buildings, more classrooms, toilets, trained teachers, improvement in curriculum and library / lab and, on the other hand, it prohibits a) physical punishment and mental harassment, b) screening procedures for admission, c) capitation fees, d) private tuition by teachers, and e) running of schools without recognition.

Under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Education for all) following progress have been made in India :

1. 99 percent of rural population has a primary school within one Km- 3,66,559 schools were opened till September, 2010;

2. Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) at primary level (5th) increased from 96.3 in 2001-2 to 114.37 in 2008-09;

3. GER at upper primary level (8th) increased from 60.2 in 2001-2 to 76.23 in 2008-09;

4. Gender Parity Index (GPI) improved from 0.3 in 2001-2 to 1.00 in 2008-09 at primary level;

5. GPI improved from 0.77 in 2001-2 to 0.96 in 2008-09 at upper primary level;

6. Drop out rate at primary level reduced from 39 percent in 2001-2 to 25 percent in 2008-09;

7. Dropout rate for girls declined by 17 percent during 2001-2 - 2008-09;

8. In 2008-09 pupil – teacher ratio at national level was 44:1 for primary level and 34:1 for upper primary level – by December 2010 in total 11.13 lakh teachers were recruited;

9. 29.72 lakh children with special needs were identified and 24.59 lakh such children (83 percent of the identified) were enrolled in school by September, 2010.

10. Since inception 2,81,943 new school buildings and 12,77,072 additional classrooms were approved; out of these 2,54,935 school buildings and 11,66,868 additional classrooms were constructed by 2010-11.

11. 1,90,961 drinking water facilities and 3,47,857 toilets were constructed by 2010-11.

12. All children upto 8th standard are provided free textbooks in 2010-11 (by December) 9.93 crore children were given free text books in the entire country.

Regarding quality improvement focus has been given to different aspects like child-friendly environment, inclusiveness, responsive to children with special needs, social and gender-equity. Further to upgrade the skills of teachers, in-service training for 20 days for all teachers, 6 days’ condensed courses for untrained teachers already employed, and induction training for 30 days for newly trained recruits are provided. In 2010-11, 39.5 lakh teachers were approved for training under SSA in order to improve teaching – learning transactions, especially focusing on activity – based learning, child-centred learning and minimum level of learning. By December, 2010, 6637 Block Resource Centres and 69,989 Cluster Resource Centres were set up in the country to provide decentralised academic support, training and supervision. Monthly meeting of teachers are organised at CRCs for peer sharing and reflective discussion. Further more than one lakh untrained teachers were trained under distance mode. In Madhya Pradesh, in collaboration with universities, Operation Quality programme has been launched. Based on National Curriculum Framework (2005), fourteen States have revised their curriculum and 7 States have made textbooks more activity–based, child-friendly and sensitive to gender and marginal groups. In addition, upto Rs.50 lakh is available to each district for computer–aided learning in schools and 1.99 lakh teachers were trained under it. NCERT has been engaged in learning achievement surveys and its findings (2nd round) were as follows.

Though there was improvement from round I but still it is not satisfactory. An NGO, Pratham, had found that in most of states 50 percent of the students of fifth standard could not do simple reading, writing and arithmetic (3 Rs). That is, though there is quantitative achievement in terms of access (90 percent plus), minimum level of learning (quality) is not achieved in elementary education (that is the base for secondary and higher education).
From above it is clear that as per EDI (2009-10) the performance of States/UTs like Puduchery, Lakhshdweep, Kerala, Tamilnadu and Andman & Nicobar Islands is the best at primary level and at upper primary level the performance of States/UTs like Puducherry, Lakshdweep, Kerala, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and Chandigarh is the best. On the other hand, at primary level worst performers are Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Bihar and Assam, and at upper primary level the worst performers are Bihar, Jhakhand, Meghalaya, Assam and U.P.

Secondary Education: But universalisation of merely elementary education is not sufficient because minimum schooling period is for twelve years. Hence for achieving universalisation of secondary education Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSY) was started in 2009-10 in order to achieve an enrolment rate of 75 percent (from 52.26 percent in 2005-06) within five years by providing a secondary school within a reasonable distance. Second, its objective is to improve the quality of secondary education. Third, it also strives to remove gender, socio-economic and disability barriers. Finally, it will ensure universal access to secondary education by 2017 (end of 12th five year plan) and to achieve universal retention by 2020. It has following major targets :-

• a) additional enrolment of more than 32 lakh students by 2011-12.

• b) strengthening of about 44,000 existing secondary schools;

• c) open ing of about 11,000 new secondary schools;

• d) appointment of additional teachers to improve pupil- teacher ratio (30:1);

• e) construction of more than 80,000 additional classrooms.

• f) quality to be improved while ensuring equity – focus on science, math and English education, in- service training of teachers, science labs, ICT enabled education, curriculum and teaching – learning reforms.

• g) social equity will be ensured through special focus on micro planning, preference to Ashram schools in upgradation, preference to areas with concentration of SC/ST/Minority for opening of schools, special enrolment drive for weaker sections, more female teachers, and separate toilet for girls.

Under RMSA, during 11th plan 75 percent cost is being borne by central government and 25 percent by state government but in 12th Plan it will be 50:50 between Centre and States. Further at plus two level (12th) centrally sponsored scheme of vocationalisation of secondary education provides for “diversification of educational opportunities so as to enhance individual employability, reduce the mismatch between demand and supply of skilled manpower.” Vocationalisation started in 1988 but was revised in 1992-93 providing for financial assistance to States for different activities. This scheme created infrastructures of 21,000 sections in 9,619 schools and created a capacity of 10 lakh students at +2 level. Since its inception a grant of Rs.765 crore was released. Further Government of India started a central sponsored scheme, namely national means-cum-merit scholarship for economically weaker but meritorious students to prevent their drop out at class 8th and to continue secondary education but their parental income should not exceed Rs. 1,50,000/-. During 2009-10, 24,536 students (Rs.6000 per head in a year) in 28 states/UTs were benefited under this but could not achieve the target of one lakh. In addition GOI started incentives for SC/ST girls and all girls passing from Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas for secondary education in 2008-09 wherein Rs. 3000/- is deposited as fixed which the girls are entitled to withdraw along with interest after passing 10th examination and attaining of 18 years of age. In 2008-09 Rs.122.87 crores was sanctioned to 4.09 lakh girls in 25 states/UTs and in 2009-10 Rs.63.17 crore was sanctioned to 2.10 lakh girls.

Higher Education: Tertiary (higher) education is the highest level comprising of undergraduate, postgraduate and research. On 31st December, 2010 there were 42 central universities, 130 institutions deemed to be universities, 261 State universities, 73 private universities, 33 institutions of national importance, and 5 institutions established under State Acts – thus 544 institutions in total. In addition, there are 31324 degree colleges. The enrolment of women in higher education increased from 10 percent on eve of Independence to 41.6 percent in 2010-11. Women enrolment as percentage of total enrolment is highest in Goa (59 percent) and lowest in Bihar (30 percent). But in absolute number of women enrolment U.P tops the list with 8.4 lakh, followed by Maharashtra with 7.8 lakh and Andhra Pradesh with 6.1 lakh. UGC provides Indira Gandhi scholarship of Rs.2000/- P.M. for 20 months to single girl students – the total number of such scholarship is 1200 in a year. In 2009-10, 1538 girls were benefited under this.

In universities and colleges there are Equal Opportunity Cells for ensuring effective implementation of policies/programmes for weaker sections. At present 128 such cells are working in different universities. Further orientation programmes and refresher courses for teachers are organized to exchange experiences and ideas and keep updated with the latest trends. 66 Academic staff colleges are running in different universities. During 2010-11, 277 orientation programmes, 814 refresher courses and 259 short-term courses were organised. Further there is provision for teaching and research in innovative areas on 100 percent financial assistance basis (upto Rs.60 lakh), faculty improvement programme to pursue higher studies and present papers in seminars (restricted to 20 percent of permanent teachers), bilateral exchange programme between India and foreign countries (in 2010-11 cultural and educational exchange programme held with 44 countries), national eligibility test for lectureship and junior research fellowships (for 5 years to ensure minimum standard for 77 subjects (1200 fellowships for humanities and 2000 fellowships for sciences in a year), enhancing faculty resources of university by taking cooperation of outsiders (public undertakings, business corporations, NRIs working with academics, research and business oranisations), internal quality assurance cells for ensuring excellence (seed money of Rs. 5 lakhs is given to each university and Rs. 3 lakhs to a college), promotion of Indian higher education abroad (in terms of fairs), research projects to teachers (up to Rs.12 lakh for sciences and Rs. 10 lakh for humanities/social science for major projects and Rs. 2 lakh for minor projects -1029 science research projects and 707 social science/humanities projects sanctioned in 2010-11), research awards to teachers up to 45 years with full salary and Rs.4 lakh for sciences and Rs.2.5 lakh for humanities/social sciences, and for value addition to higher education area studies programme (46 centres in 2010-11) with assistance of Rs.15 lakh, Centres for Studies in Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy (35 universities selected) and Centres for Study of Social Thinkers/Leaders have also been launched by UGC. However Indian higher education has not achieved world class quality in both education and research. In 2009-10 through Central Universities Act (2009), 16 new central universities were established.

Technical Education: In addition to higher education, there are several technical educational institutions playing vital role in human resource development ‘by creating skilled manpower, enhancing industrial productivity and improving the quality of life’. These are 15 IITs (with an intake of 8000 students), 11 IIMs, 5 Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, 30 NITs, 1 Indian Institute of Science, 41 IIITs, 4 National Institutes of Technical Teachers’ Training & Research, and 9 others – in total 79 central technical institutions. Further 20 IITs are proposed in 11th Five Year Plan. Further All India Council of Technical Education has approved 6,533 degree level and 2,214 diploma level technical institutions with intake capacity of 13.57 lakh and 5.73 lakh students respectively.

Drawbacks: Due to vast expansion of higher and technical education over the years, India has the third largest technical manpower in the world after US and China. But following drawbacks are notable in higher and technical education in India :-

• a) UGC has over- regulated and restricted the autonomy of universities in India; further it has ignored and not provided adequate funds to state universities which are in large number but due to paucity of fund are not flourishing, about one lakh students go to foreign countries for quality higher education every year and this leads to drain of huge amount because often per head expenditure on one student is 25 lakh rupees in a year. Thus at least Rs. 500 crore is drained from India every year in this regard. Further about 80 percent of such students prefer to work in western countries. Surprisingly many Indian students also go to China for technical education (especially engineering and medicine). In 2006, lakhs of students from various developing countries (especially China and India) contributed $ 18000 million to US economy and $ 8000 million to Australian economy.

• b) Not a single Indian university (including IIT and IIM) gets rank in top 100 universities in the world (as per Times Higher Education ranking) whereas some universities from Japan, China, Singapore, Korea etc. find their ranks there.

• c) After liberalisation, in 1991, there have been mushrooming growth of private universities and colleges in India without maintaining higher academic standard and transparency in administration. They are charging very high capitation fee/ donation as well as other charges illegally and unethically. And even then enrolment in public and private sector higher education is only 13 percent whereas it is 50 percent in developed countries and in some developed countries like US above 80 percent; China has 23 percent enrolment rate.

• d) Many engineers and management postgraduates are not capable of handling the expected tasks. Hence they are not employable or to be adjusted to lower jobs. As per Mckinsey report 75 percent of graduate engineers in India are too poorly educated to function effectively in the economy without additional on-the–job training. Thus their productivity is low. Further though Indian economy is growing faster at 8-9 percent annually than earlier at 3-4 percent, yet sufficient jobs have not been created resulting into ‘jobless growth’ whereas China is growing much faster as well as creating sufficient jobs.

National Knowledge Commission has diagnosed ten ailments of higher education:

1. outdated curricula have not kept pace with the times;

2. learning places premium on memory rather than understanding;

3. the milieu is not conducive to anything beyond class;

4. academic calendar is no longer sacrosanct for classes or examinations;

5. the infrastructure is on the verge of collapse;

6. the boundaries between disciplines have become ‘dividing walls’;

7. the importance of research has eroded;

8. decline in volume of research (frequency of publication) and quality of research;

9. little accountability – no rewards for performance and no penalties for non – performance;

10. governance structure not responsive to changing times and circumstances that the system is readily subverted by vested interests.

In India, it is a contradictory situation that the products of academics (supply) do not match with the demands of three sectors of economy – agricultures, services and industries. Most of traditional industries, especially textiles, jute and sugar, have collapsed in India. Agro-industries have also not prospered. At present service (tertiary) sector is growing very fast and contributing to the extent of 50 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). About 20 lakh Indians are working in the Gulf and maximum number of skilled labour is from Kerala as nurses, teachers and technicians, while unskilled labourers are from Bihar, U.P. etc. Paucity of fund is also one of the reasons for the poor quality of higher and technical education in India. D.S. Kothari Commission had recommended that 6 percent of GDP should be spent on education (all sectors) but only about 3 percent of GDP is spent here on education at present and about 1 percent on higher education. UNESCO has observed that India has the lowest public expenditure on education per student in the world.

Policy Implications: For better contribution of education to the Indian economy in general, and service sector in particular, following steps need to be taken by the Union, State and local governments at the earliest:
First, public expenditure on education, (with special focus on technical education) should be enhanced to 6 percent of GDP so that both central and state educational institutions are provided adequate fund for various academic and infrastructural facilities. Higher education should get 1.5 percent of GDP.

Second, still access is less than desirable, hence a massive drive is to be launched; drop outs should be removed through mass awareness campaigns, making curricula more student-friendly, providing facilities like labs, libraries, toilets, classrooms etc. adequately.

Third, there should be a paradigm shift from literature type education to productive, job–oriented education as per requirement in public and private sectors after secondary education. This will provide assured employment to skilled and semi-skilled manpower, and secondly industry, agriculture and services sectors would get required manpower, and finally unnecessary burden on higher education (especially in humanities/social sciences) would be eased. There should be regular interface of industry and service sectors with educational institutions. Like Germany, there should be sandwitch pattern of education and employment – after studying for sometime one needs to join factories and again to join academics. Gandhian motto of ‘earning while learning’ may be popularised.

Fourth, individual rate of return from secondary education is usually less (in terms of employment) than social rate of return (in terms of collective consciousness, basic citizens’ rights and duties). On the other hand, from higher education individual rate of return is more than social rate of return because a graduate/post graduate gives top priority to his / her job and tends to be highly mobile and migrate to urban areas, metros or foreign countries for individual gains.

Therefore quality education at all stages (primary, secondary and tertiary) should be ensured, because if the foundation (schooling) remains weak, superstructure of higher education can not sustain for long. Moreover, 25 percent of teachers positions being vacant should be filled in a transparent manner at the earliest. Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India rightly remarked in 2007 : “In almost half of the districts in the country, higher education enrolments are abysmally low, almost 2/3rd of our universities and 90 percent of our colleges are rated as below average on quality parameters…… there are complaints of favouritism and corruption”.

Fifth, the argument that all foreign universities should be freely allowed to open campuses in India does not hold good. In 2010 Tri Valley University (US) was detected as a fake University where thousands of students were illegally studying and many Indian students were arrested. Similarly in 2011 in the University of Northern Virginia 2400 foreign students were enrolled against the legally permitted strength of 50 foreign students. About 90 percent of such students were from India. Thus craze for the west is dangerous. Therefore, there should be limited and careful entry of only selected world class universities who would care for the socio-cultural values of India and would not charge very high education fees. Further world class scholars should be invited by Indian universities frequently for exchange of new ideas and experiences with teachers and students. On the other hand, Indian Universities should be capable of attracting foreign students in engineering, medicine and management as well as opening of their campuses abroad. This will result in huge capital–formation necessary for the growing Indian economy.

Sixth, though the literacy rate in India increased from 65 percent in 2001 to 74 percent in 2011, there still remains a wide gender gap – 82.14 percent of males and 65.46 percent of females are literate. That is, women are lagging behind males by 16.5 percent points. Though women’s literacy growth during 2001-11 was higher than men’s, yet this gender gap is to be bridged at the earliest. Kerala tops the list with highest literacy rate (93 percent ) and Bihar is at the bottom with 63.8 percent. Further for adults, literacy should be made more functional and meaningful by focusing on productive skills and life skills, rights and duties, government schemes, clean environment, health, sanitation, values, peace and social harmony, and empowerment of the weaker sections including women. Literacy drives should be aimed against child labour through team efforts of educational administrations, labour officers, district administration, NGOs and teachers to cover 26 percent illiterate Indians. Towards this end, GOI has launched Sakshar Bharat Mission for Female Literacy.

Finally, the bitter truth is that 90 percent of India’s workforce is in unorganized sector (comprising mainly agriculture and service sector) where jobs are casual, insecure, with less salary, more work, unhealthy working conditions, drudgery, no leisure, no insurance, no provident fund etc. Further due to liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation, many labour laws/provisions, restricting employers from firing, have been relaxed or repealed, therefore there are new trends of casualisation and contractualisation of labour (hiring and firing) and feminisation of poverty (as women- headed households have suffered most). But for this new economic reforms is more responsible than the education because the motto of these economic reforms is that ‘privatisation is the panacea of all ills’. Even the public–private- partnership (ppp) model has been implemented only where it suits the private sector which does not venture in remote North-East region or naxal – affected areas. Still 80 percent of schools are in public sector in India, mostly in rural areas where private schools are rare.
A notable fact is that the policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation became a part of higher academics curricula as well as training module for working civil servants in Union and State governments.

Many private schools, colleges and universities do not give adequate salary (at par with government) to teachers and staff and most of them are untrained (55 percent) and there is no inservice training. Needless to say that GOI’s Tandon Committee (on higher education) found that 44 deemed universities did not fulfill eligibility norms and were running as family fiefdoms but government’s decision to cancel these was challenged in Supreme court. Similarly UGC found 39 fake institutions operating in the country.

We may conclude that in order to become a prosperous global economy within first five ranks, India has to qualitatively strengthen her education, especially higher and technical education; that is, at as the catalyst for bringing about visible economic change with more skilled jobs with higher earnings leading to a prosperous society. We need job-led growth and for this the thrust should be on quality and vocational / technical education.

Courtesy: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting publication division