A study commissioned by the Delhi-based Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has endorsed a common complaint of industry captains and HRD (human resource develop-ment) managers in particular: that the quality of India’s annual output of 3 million arts, science and commerce graduates is going from bad to worse. The overwhelming majority of employers in India Inc are only “somewhat satisfied” with the new grads hired last year with 12.8 percent completely dissatisfied.
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This survey conducted by Team Cvoter (Centre for voting opinion and trends in election research) interviewed chief executives, managing directors and HRD managers of 300 companies across India in October. The respondents were particularly dissatisfied with the poor soft skills (motivation, discipline and communications) of the gradu-ates of the country’s 31,000 undergrad colleges with 60 percent of respondents opining that fresh graduates lack the ability to identify and solve workplace problems.
Comment the authors of the survey unveiled at FICCI’s sixth annual Higher Education Summit in Delhi on November 11 coinciding with National Education Day: “Academic skills definitely count but various other skills like flexibility, creativity, empathy, writing skills, computer savvyness, spoken and written English, interpersonal skills, the art of communication, situation behaviour, knowledge of contemporary issues etc are required in today’s growth engines like the service sector.”
Although India Inc has long been complaining about the poor quality of arts, science and commerce graduates, which has burdened Indian industry with arguably the highest employee training costs worldwide, the Union HRD ministry and higher education governance institutions such as the University Grants Commission, All India Council for Technical Education, Medical Council of India etc are deaf to pleas demanding better quality educa-tion and systemic reform. Content to over-subsidise undergraduate educa-tion — tuition fees have remained frozen at 1947 levels — India’s arts, science and commerce undergrad colleges are heavily dependent upon grudging government subsidies and are “trapped in a low price-low quality higher educa-tion equilibrium”, according to Dr. Neeraj Kaushal professor at Columbia University, USA. “Students neither expect nor demand rigorous education and remain indifferent to quality of teaching dispensed,” she explains in an essay written for EducationWorld (November).
The price is being paid by India Inc which boasts a capital output ratio of 4:1 against the global average of 2:1. “Articulation and problem solving skills are absent from collegiate curricula. Even in Hindi and other languages, graduates are not able to communicate effectively,” laments Dr. Sandhya Chintala, director, NASSCOM (National Association for Software & Services Companies).
The consensus of opinion among 600 delegates at the FICCI Higher Educa-tion Summit was that the overdue liberalisation — which in effect means permitting private edupreneurs to establish arts, science and commerce colleges with full autonomy relating to admission and fees (as laid down by the Supreme Court in the T.M.A. Pai Foundation (2002) and Inamdar (2005) judgements) — of higher education and enactment of the Foreign Education Institutions Bill must be accelerated.
Commenting on an Ernst & Young paper titled New Realities, Possibilities: The Changing Face of Indian Higher Education, Amitabh Jhigan, partner of the well-known transnational consultancy firm says: “The stage is set for increased collaboration between government, private players, industry and international educational players in the field of higher education, which can significantly improve access, equity as well as quality. Promoting diversity in the higher education sector, wherein centres of excellence co-exist with large mass-based institutes, is important keeping in mind the different realities of India.”
In short, the liberalisation and deregu-lation of Indian education — especially higher education — is overdue.
Autar Nehru (Delhi)