One of the numerous logical inconsistencies and paradoxes of post-liberalisation India’s sputtering economic development effort is that too many people — especially the nation’s political leaders, captains of industry and intellectuals — seem to believe this third world country can magically transform into an economic superpower, incredible India, member of the Security Council etc, without bothering about the poor quality of education dispensed in its 1.26 million government schools, 31,000 colleges and 603 universities. That’s wishful thinking.
It’s patently obvious that everything has gone wrong with Indian education, particularly after independence when in pursuance of a “socialistic pattern of society”, the commanding heights of the Indian economy were captured by the State, i.e the Central and state governments. Suddenly promotion, administration and management of industry, the economy and education system passed into the hands of an empowered but wholly unprepared and under-qualified neta-babu (politician-bureaucrat) fraternity which has since morphed into a gigantic 20 million-strong kleptocracy.
While Indian industry muddled through and has modestly prospered, the damage inflicted upon post-independence India’s education system has been devastating, especially in higher education rigidly controlled by the Central and state governments to prevent “commercialisation of education”. Firstly, because private investment in higher education is actively discouraged, capacity building has been grossly inadequate. Currently India’s colleges, universities and institutions of higher education can accommodate a mere 11 percent of the country’s youth in the age group 18-24 years (cf. 23 percent in China and 83 percent in the US). Moreover, learning outcomes in contemporary India’s under-funded colleges and universities, in which the lack of libraries and laboratories infrastructure is glaringly evident, are so poor that a 2005 NASSCOM-McKinsey World Institute study concluded that 75 percent of graduates of India’s engineering and 85 percent of science, arts and commerce colleges are unqualified for employment in multinational companies.
That India’s universities and higher education system is in a shambles, is confirmed by the World University Rankings almost simultaneously published by the London-based Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd, a global education research and consultancy, and Times Higher Education weekly (THE). Apart from the IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) which strictly speaking, are not universities, India’s highest ranked multi-disciplinary varsity is Delhi University which just about squeezes into the QS league table of the world’s 400 top varsities. And the top-ranked Indian ‘university’ in the THE table is IIT-Bombay, awarded a non-specific ranking of 301-350. The causes and effects of the sliding reputation of India’s once respected universities are discussed and debated in this sad end-of-year issue’s cover story.
And for our special report feature, EducationWorld correspondents fanned out across the country to solicit opinions of school student leaders about social reformer Anna Hazare’s India Against Corruption movement. Their views are very important. After all, Generation Next will pay a heavy price if this historic crusade fails.
