Education in India
Education in India has a history stretching back to the ancient urban centres of learning at Taxila and Nalanda. Western education became ingrained into Indian society with the establishment of the British Raj. Education in India falls under the control of both the central government and the states, with some responsibilities lying with the centre and the state having autonomy for others. The various articles of the Indian constitution provide for education as a fundamental right. Most universities in India are Central or State Government controlled.
India has made a huge progress in terms of increasing primary education attendance rate and expanding literacy to approximately two thirds of the population. India’s improved education system is often cited as one of the main contributors to the economic rise of India. Much of the progress in education has been credited to various private institutions. The private education market in India is estimated to be worth $40 billion in 2008 and will increase to $68 billion by 2012. However, India continues to face challenges. Despite growing investment in education, 35% of the population is illiterate and only 15% of the students reach high school. As of 2008, India’s post-secondary high schools offer only enough seats for 7% of India\’s college-age population, 25% of teaching positions nationwide are vacant, and 57% of college professors lack either a master’s or PhD degree. There are 1,346 degree-granting engineering colleges in India with an annual student intake of 440,000, plus 1,244 polytechnics with an annual intake of 265,000. However, these institutions face shortage of faculty and concerns have been raised over the quality of education.
The Educational Organisation
Before 1976, education was the exclusive responsibility of the States. The Constitutional Amendment of 1976, which included education in the Concurrent List, was a far-reaching step. The substantive, financial and administrative implication required a new sharing of responsibility between the Union Government and the States. While the role and responsibility of the States in education remained largely unchanged, the Union Government accepted a larger responsibility of reinforcing the national and integrated character of education, maintaining quality and standards including those of the teaching profession at all levels, and the study and monitoring of the educational requirements of the country.
The Central Government continues to play a leading role in the evolution and monitoring of educational policies and programmes, the most notable of which are the National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986 and the Programme of Action (POA), 1986 as updated in 1922. The modified policy envisages a National System of education to bring about uniformity in education, making adult education programmes a mass movement, providing universal access, retention and quality in elementary education, special emphasis on education of girls, establishment of pacesetting schools like Navodaya Vidyalayas in each district, vocationalisation of secondary education, synthesis of knowledge and inter-disciplinary research in higher education, starting more Open Universities in the States, strengthening of the All India Council of Technical Education, encouraging sports, physical education, Yoga and adoption of an effective evaluation method, etc. Besides, a decentralised management structure had also been suggested to ensure popular participation in education. The POA lays down a detailed strategy for the implementation of the various policy parameters by the implementing agencies.
The National System of Education as envisaged in the NPE is based on a national curricular framework, which envisages a common core along with other flexible and region-specific components. While the policy stresses widening of opportunities for the people, it calls for consolidation of the existing system of higher and technical education. It also emphasises the need for a much higher level of investment in education of at least six per cent of the national income.
The Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), the highest advisory body to advise the Central and State Governments in the field of education, was first established in 1920 and dissolved in 1923 as a measure of economy. It was revived in 1935 and had continued to exist till 1994. Despite the fact that in the past, important decisions had been taken on the advice of CABE and it had provided a forum for widespread consultation and examination of issues relating to educational and cultural development, it was unfortunately not reconstituted after the expiry of its extended tenure in March 1994. CABE has a particularly important role to play at the present juncture in view of the significant socio-economic and socio-cultural developments taking place in the country and for the review of the National Policy on Education which is also due. It is a matter of importance therefore, that the Central and State Governments, and educationists and people representing all interests, should increase their interaction and evolve a participative process of decision making in education, which enhances the federal structure of our polity. The National Policy on Education, 1986 (as modified in 1992) also envisages that the CABE will play a pivotal role in reviewing educational development, determining the changes required to improve the system and monitoring implementation, and will function through appropriate mechanisms created to ensure contact with, and coordination among, the various areas of human resource development. Accordingly, the CABE has since been reconstituted by the Government in July 2004 and the first meeting of the reconstituted CABE was held on 10 and 11 August 2004. The Board consists of nominated members representing various interests in addition to elected members from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, and the representatives of the Government of India, State Governments and UT Administrations.
India Education Trends
In recent years students with the highest scores choose for increasingly popular studies such as health, fashion, communications or hotel management. Experts expect a rapidly increasing demand in these sectors for highly skilled employers. To this is immediately responded by young people which currently follow secondary or higher education streams for these specific Indian emerging markets. A recent study by Price Waterhouse Coopers estimated that the media and entertainment sector will grow over the next five years by nearly 20 percent, and in 2010 an amount of € 2 billion will be reached. The fashion industry, design and production technology for smart textiles will increase in fivefold the next five or ten years in size.
Health care shows a growth of 13 percent per year. New education developments in India such as medical tourism, telemedicine, and the rapid emergence of exclusive clinics and hospitals create a large number of new and particularly well-paid jobs.
There is a mentality change. In the eighties many took additional education to increase salary opportunities and status. The current generation is more of taking risk. They have no problem with job hopping, even on the borders of their own disciplines. This change also has changed the perception of the management company.
Threats to the Succes of Indian Education
The strong Indian market circumstances and the huge salary differences between working in government, in business or a research center makes it difficult for young students to get interested in science.
Government institutes are still setting the tone. The large differences in salary make working for a higher education institute not really attractive, and the shortages for skilled teachers is still growing rapidly. Recently, the Business Line newspaper reported that in 2010 a deficit of around 135 thousand technique teachers may be expected. Moreover, the lack of scientific quality, most institutions (especially private) a scientific job is little challenging.
Businesses and private institutions offer salaries which, even for someone who sees teaching as a vocation, can almost not be refused. For example private hospitals are charging fees that are 50 times higher than those in public hospitals. A university professor told that his graduate students get offers from the private sector which are sometimes ten times higher than his own salary, and then ask him what to do. This is a development which, as in many western countries, makes it increasingly difficult to make young people interested in a scientific career.
International position
In national surveys on the quality of science in India appear the INI’s consistently in the top of the university rankings. Back to Indian standards they are in the absolute top. The Times Higher Education Supplement, however, placed the IIT’s in the past at number 50 on the World University Rankings, and place 36 as measured by overall scientific position.
If only the position in the field of technology is taken into account they are in third place. Not a bad score. In the competitive Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Academic Ranking of World Universities only IIT Kharagpur appears in the top 500 .
The fact that relatively few Indian universities are publishing internationally recognized research papers, few are cited, and only a very limited amount have social science faculties, declares together with small numbers of international students the modest positions in international university ranking lists. The pressure from the Indian government for more and better research is therefore noticeably increasing. The support from Indian Government are linked to success, whereas others measured by the international rating.
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