The Indian education market is worth a staggering INR 5.9 trillion (USD 92.98 billion). Of this, 59.7 per cent accounts for higher education, a sector that caters to 20 million students from 36,000 different institutions every year. Accounting for 38.1 per cent, the next chunk is taken away by primary schools, followed by a paltry 1.6 per cent and 0.6 per cent for primary schooling and technology & multi-media, respectively. Between April 2000 and September 2014, FDI equities brought in USD 964.03 million into the country. India has one of the largest markets in education and the largest pool of higher education students, a feat that wasn’t easy to achieve.
In terms of pure numbers, education is currently growing at an 11.3 per cent CAGR. Between 2005-2012, more than 18,000 colleges were established in India bringing the total to a neat 35,539. These colleges are separate from India’s 574 universities (8.7 per cent CAGR) of which 50 per cent are state-run, 23 per cent are deemed to be universities (autonomous), 19 per cent are private institutions and 8 per cent are central universities. Literacy, on the other hand, has had a funny growth in India. The British Raj began in 1858 and ended in 1947. The kernel of Enlightenment came as a foreign export to India, and with it the principles of egalitarianism in a land burdened by complex and discriminatory hierarchies, dark superstitions and xenophobia. It’s a wonder that between 1900-1947, India’s literacy grew an astounding… 5.8 percent. From 6.2 per cent, India jumped to 12 per cent in 1947, hardly an achievement of pride. However, between 1947 and 1994, literacy crossed 48 per cent, a rise of 36 per cent. Today, that number stands at 74.04 per cent, still a sluggish growth by better standards. And that’s the interesting conundrum. With an above average literacy rate, numerous institutions, billion of dollars swirling in the sector, why is India still fumbling at a sceloritic pace compared to its competitors?
68 per cent of India is rural. The region is home to nearly 833 million, and 51.73 per cent of them are below the age of 25. The Census in 2013 concluded that almost half of rural India -as opposed to 28 per cent according to the Planning Commission- qualified for the BPL status. This is the ultimate death knell set to put rural India’s potential into a deep slumber. A young, burgeoning population with no opportunities is likely to migrate to marginalised rural settlements. Most of the leaps in education in India have been largely confined to urban India, even as 29 per cent of primary school rural enrolments are in private institutions. The toxic conflux of poverty, remote geography, lack of pedagogical resources, cultural obstinance, poor infrastructure and even poorer implementation of government schemes and policies creates an environment almost hostile to quality education in rural India. It’s not that Indian children don’t get to school. Primary completion rates for 2006 were 85.7 per cent. Students simply don’t stay long enough for it to significantly matter, and the quality of education imparted is severely low.
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In fact, according to philanthropic organisation Dasra’s research, most NGOs are school-based (traditional) or community-based efforts that focus on primary education. Secondary education receives little attention from even NGOs. So, the reality is simple. More than 70 per cent of India is either badly educated or uneducated, and the Right to Education act has been largely ineffective in improving the condition. Even in metropolitan cities like Delhi, poor nutritional quality of midday meals has brought governments under severe criticism. failed the nutrition test. Another aspect of the rural education problem is the education of rural girls and women. In the 1900s, less than 1 per cent of rural women were literate. Today, 57.93 per cent of them do. Globally, that number has no value. According to the Census, any individual above the age of seven who can read and write, irrespective of fluency, in any language is considered literate. Our low bar for what constitutes literacy makes our leap seem more than what it is. Though more than half of rural women are literate, they are mostly uneducated due to cultural hindrances to improvement.
So, who are the players working for rural low-cost education, fighting against cultural backwardness and all the logistic, infrastructural, pedagogical and geographic problems that comes with providing education to the rural and remote? …
See the full list here: http://social.yourstory.com/2015/02/uneducated-india/
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