Literally, in recession!

 

The economy of India is the ninth largest in the world by nominal GDP and the third largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). A promising future, an emerging super-power, a world favorite for trade and a land where entrepreneurs multiply wealth- this is the image of India that we believe in. While this is all true, aren’t we a bit too blinded by the glory to face the reality?

 

GDP is just quantitative. It is simply a part of what a country stands for. There’s an underbelly, one that’s fighting for attention. Attention from its government, attention from the one billion citizens.

The true reflection of a country’s status would be in quality. HDI is one such measure that distinguishes countries into developed, developing and underdeveloped nations. HDI is Human Development Index and can be explained as the United Nations measure of a country’s well-being. It assesses long term progress in health, education and income using three main dimensions – Life expectancy at birth, Adult literacy rate and Standard of living. The highest HDI countries are Norway, Australia, Netherlands and USA.

India ranks a low 134 among 187 countries in 2011 statistics (119 of 169 in 2010). Sri Lanka is at 97, China 101, Pakistan 145 and Bangladesh 146.

 

Building an educated populace, in my opinion, is India's greatest challenge. Education is the first step to tackle issues such as poverty, health, over-population and corruption. India’s literacy rate is 75.06%, it is well below the world average of 84%. India currently has the largest illiterate population of any nation on earth. There is also a wide gender disparity with 82.14% literacy in men as against 65.46% in women. An educated woman is the only way to effective family planning, population stabilization and child health.

The literacy rates in neighboring countries should put us to shame with a whopping 95.9% in china, and 90.8% in Sri Lanka. Six Indian states account for about 70% of all illiterates in India – UP, Bihar, MP, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.

 

The reasons are many – Insufficient infrastructure, caste disparities, dropouts, poverty, gender discrimination and others. Or aren’t these the excuses we always give for all our problems?

 

The challenge doesn’t end with these numbers. To make things worse, those who are literate aren’t necessarily educated. Einstein said, ‘Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.’

A large part of the 90 million people joining the workforce this year lack the requisite skills and mindset of productive employment.

Three recent reports in the Times of India paint a grim picture of school education in India. First, a leading corporate published the Quality Education Survey on high-end schools in metropolitan cities, which found them lacking on quality parameters and indicted them for excessive reliance on rote learning. Second, the OECD`s (Organization for Economic Co-operation and development)  Programme for International Student Assessment ranked Indian higher secondary students only better than those from Kyrgyzstan among 74 participating countries. And third, Pratham`s Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2011, assessing schools in rural India, found declining attendance, over-reliance on private tuitions and declining reading and mathematical abilities of children in the six to 14 years age category. Despite a welcome high enrolment rate - around 96.7%, the quality of school learning is simply not up to the mark. (Source: TOI).

 

There is an immediate need to develop adult vocational schools and encourage child education to accelerate growth in rural areas. Industry participation, practical and research based learning can improve education. Alternate methods of educating, training and skills assessments may be adopted to counter inefficient and rote learning. Encouraging entrepreneurship, deploying technology, online leaning and more initiatives such as 'Teach for India' can be effective. 

 

Edutopia.org explains what we, as students, need - Engage: Project-Based Learning; Connect: Integrated Studies; Share: Cooperative Learning; Expand: Comprehensive Assessment. Limited opportunities and a large pool of talent creates a big demand-supply gap in India. Hence, education here is employment and ROI oriented, instead of being driven by interests and capabilities. When you enroll in a course to study something without the willingness or the skill for it, you’re bound to focus on just getting through somehow and move forward. A student needs to be receptive and open to stimulation to be able to learn.

 

Children are one third of our population and all of our future. India is young, she has the resources and it is thriving to attain newer heights every passing day. The Indian ‘jugaad’ is good occasionally, but let’s not make it a way of life, sluggishly waiting for a crisis to wake us up. We are good even when we are disorganized, imagine what we can achieve when we set our hearts to get things right. Don’t just be literate, be educated. Start NOW!