Posted by Ninad on August 16, 2010 under All Posts | 
The latest figures are staggering – 220 million children start schooling in Grade 1 across India. Roughly 80 per cent drop out by the time they reach class 10 and finally, only around 14 million reach college — that is an embarrassing 6 per cent!
So, how can we increase this to at least 30 per cent?
At a recent event in Mumbai, Union HRD Minister urged educational institutions in India and abroad to enter into collaborations in order to ensure that Indian students get access to quality education.
He spoke of the need for India to grow along the lines of the 3 Ss — science, solutions and sustainability. He emphasised that sustainability, which is critical for the development of the entire country can be achieved only through collaborations.
In India, there are a few Institutes which have already collaborated with foreign universities. However, given the sheer gap between the demand for good quality education and supply, there is a greater potential for partnerships across various streams.
Such partnerships can bring the expertise of foreign universities — in terms of courseware, academic inputs, training to Indian teachers etc. Foreign universities will be keen to enter the Indian education market. However, they will definitely evaluate all options before they engage into a partnership.
Eventually, if such partnerships fructify, it can only benefit the Indian student and hopefully, the present number of 14 million will start creeping upwards!
The latest figures are staggering – 220 million children start schooling in Grade 1 across India. Roughly 80 per cent drop out by the time they reach class 10 and finally, only around 14 million reach college — that is an embarrassing 6 per cent!
So, how can we increase this to at least 30 per cent?
At a recent event in Mumbai, Union HRD Minister urged educational institutions in India and abroad to enter into collaborations in order to ensure that Indian students get access to quality education.
He spoke of the need for India to grow along the lines of the 3 Ss — science, solutions and sustainability. He emphasised that sustainability, which is critical for the development of the entire country can be achieved only through collaborations.
In India, there are a few Institutes which have already collaborated with foreign universities. However, given the sheer gap between the demand for good quality education and supply, there is a greater potential for partnerships across various streams.
Such partnerships can bring the expertise of foreign universities — in terms of courseware, academic inputs, training to Indian teachers etc. Foreign universities will be keen to enter the Indian education market. However, they will definitely evaluate all options before they engage into a partnership.
Eventually, if such partnerships fructify, it can only benefit the Indian student and hopefully, the present number of 14 million will start creeping upwards!
Posted by Ninad on May 10, 2010 under All Posts |
Here are some statistics from IDFC-SSKI research report on Indian Education (2009).
- Government spends $ 30 billion on education every year
- Citizens spend additionally $ 50 billion on private education
- K-12 segment is worth $ 20 billion
So, do you want to start a school in India?
A school is a capital intensive business. In a city like Delhi or Mumbai, setting up a school for 1000 children on a 2 acre plot could cost anywhere between Rs. 15-20 crores.
In India, schools can be owned only by a not-for-profit trust or society or government.
Government has over 1 million schools and effectively runs the largest number of schools in the country.
There are a total of 75,000 private schools in India. Only a handful like the Delhi Public School (DPS) has more than 100 locations.
Given these intricacies, how are education entrepreneurs setting up schools?
They simply set up two legal structures. A company owns all the assets of the school and leases it to the trust for a fee. The trust runs the school and books all the expenses.
There are a plethora of new schools which have come up especially in the B and C class cities, where the cost dynamics are more favourable.
Given the big demand for good quality school education, new schools with spiffy facilities are bound to come up with this dual legal structure. Ultimately, this will mean a better choice to parents and their kids.
Posted by Ninad on May 3, 2010 under All Posts |
Currently, around 14 million students attend college. However, given the robust annual growth of GDP of more than 9 per cent, it is estimated that India will need to send 22 million students to college in the year 2014.
Mr. Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for HRD has mentioned that he wants to send 30 per cent of India’s college-going-age kids to college. This would mean 30 million more students going to colleges.
India presently has around 350 universities and the National Knowledge Commission has stated that India needs around 1,500 universities.
In 2008, it is estimated that India had around 340 million people in the age group of 25-50 year olds who did not have a college degree. This is expected to rise to 380 million by the year 2014.
Setting up a good quality university is highly capital intensive and time consuming. Although foreign universities are likely to be allowed to come to India; at best, they will meet a fraction of this demand.
So, what is the future of those students who seek a good quality college degree and are unable to get it?
The yawning gap between demand and supply will ensure that aspirants for prestigious institutions like IIT and IIM will be on the rise for many years to come.
If this huge gap is to be met, shouldn’t the government look at changing its model and allowing for-profit institutions in the education sector?
Posted by Ninad on April 26, 2010 under All Posts |
With the Right to Education becoming a fundamental right, a question asked by many educationist is — How much will it cost the government to implement? And, where will it get all the money?
It has been estimated that the government will require around Rs. 171,000 crores over the next five years.
The Thirteenth Finance Commission has provided for Rs. 25,000 crores to the States over five years for implementation of Right to Education. This is over and above allocations for centrally sponsored schemes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, teacher education and the mid-day meal scheme, which is the largest of its kind in the world.
For the current year, the allocation is Rs. 15,000 crores and the centre will bear upto 55 per cent of this.
Already, many State governments have raised a hue and cry over this stating that they do not have money to implement and comply with the Right to Education. They have asked the Central government to provide more funds.
The Prime Minister and the Minister for HRD have clearly stated that money constraints will not derail Right to Education. This clearly shows intent on the part of the government.
However, there is still a yawning gap. Who will fill it?
Posted by Ninad on November 13, 2009 under All Posts |
Recently, the State Bank of India advertised for 11,000 clerical posts. It received a staggering 3.4 million applications!
With roughly 300 applications for every vacancy, SBI is now planning to conduct exams in 83 centres over 6 sessions. This exercise is estimated to cost around Rs. 560m (approx. USD 13m), which will be recovered from the applicants.
Although the minimum qualification for the job is Class 12, many of the applicants are engineers and MBAs.
There have been many reports which suggest that only one in four graduates from colleges in India is employable. A NASSCOM study also concluded that most of the 400,000 engineers who graduate every year do not have required technical skills or fluency in English.
So, what is the solution?
Clearly, a university graduation in India is not enough to make a student employable. A lot more needs to be done.
A student needs to continually add skills in addition to his university studies. These could be in the form of learning IT skills or even learning communication and presentation skills.
Summer internship with companies will also help students to get the relevant industry experience during their vacations.
In addition, a proper vocational experience will help a student to become truly professional. In the Western countries, more than half the students who graduate have vocational experience. In India, it is in single digits.
Unless and until a student graduating from a University in India gets a holistic experience, he will not become employable. Till such time, we will continue to see millions apply for jobs in State Bank of India, for which they are clearly over-qualified.
Posted by Ninad on September 29, 2009 under All Posts |
In the corporate world, one is used to a rating agency and the process of rating of a company. There are established rating agencies which regularly rate companies.
But, a rating agency for schools! It sounded incredible, till Kapil Sibal pushed it as part of his 100 day agenda.
Reputation and goodwill of a school is generally built over a period of time. Parents choose to send their children to a school based on the reputation it has acquired over time, and the consistent performance it has shown.
However, in recent times, we have seen several new schools spring up all over the country. Many school projects are in the pipeline and we will witness a large number of new schools jostling for the “reputation” of being a good school. You see so many advertisements of new schools – this was unheard of some years ago.
With this backdrop, the proposal to have all CBSE schools rated is welcome.
A draft note prepared by the CBSE Board has recommended that all CBSE schools should undergo formal accreditation by a set of rating agencies and repeat the process every few years.
There are more than 10,000 schools in India and abroad which are affiliated to the CBSE Board. Presently, the CBSE Board formally examines the quality of a school only at the time it seeks affiliation or wants to expand.
So, what will be the parameters for rating?
- Faculty
- Admission, assessment and evaluation procedure
- Physical infrastructure and other facilities (sports, extra-curriculars)
- Health & Safety of the students and teachers
- Contribution to community
- Complaints sent to rating agency
Private rating agencies can apply to the CBSE Board and get a license to become a rating agency. CBSE will set up an expert advisory committee to regulate these agencies.
When all this becomes operational, will it really have a big impact in the decision-making process of parents? Will it put pressure on schools to ensure that there is no slackening in the quality of the school to ensure that its rating remains high? Will it create more competition between schools?
A lot will depend on how the entire process of licensing and regulation is handled. If reputed rating agencies get into this activity, the entire methodology and process is bound to work well. In India, there is expertise available on rating of companies but rating agencies will need to build up expertise for rating of schools.
Good schools will always vie to get the highest rating and average schools will want to improve their ratings.
Even with a formal rating of a school, a parent will ultimately try and find out the actual reputation of the school. Rating will be an additional factor in the decision-making process.
Posted by Ninad on July 29, 2009 under All Posts |
I had earlier blogged on the problem of shortage of teachers.
Here are some possible solutions:
- Para teachers: To tackle the problem of both teacher shortage and teacher absenteeism through these para teachers, a project called the ‘Shiksha Karmi Project’ was implemented in Rajasthan. This has been reasonably successful.Para teachers are generally members of the same community in which they teach, and therefore, share many of the experiences and cultural practices of their students, including their primary languages and cultural practices.
- E-learning: The promise of delivering education through eLearning has received a lot of hype. It has really not delivered as much. However, things have changed now. Technology is cheaper, broadband is reaching all the corners of India and PCs are becoming ubiquitous. This medium can never really replace classroom teaching. However, it can supplement it by using eLearning methods for some expert teaching done in a centralized manner.
- Pooling: Schools in the same vicinity need to collaborate more in terms of sharing of best practices and also possible sharing of teacher resources. Pooling of teachers for a group of schools can help those schools where there are temporary deficiencies.
- Youtube: Many teachers in the US record their lectures and make it available for everyone on Youtube. It is truly an economical medium of spreading knowledge. Why not embrace this in India as well?
- IIT for teachers training: Training for school teachers is done in Teachers training Colleges. Many of them do not have adequate infrastructure and have trainers of poor quality. When we can have IITs for engineers and IIMs for MBA students, why can’t we have an institute of a similar caliber to train teachers?
These are some of my thoughts. Do you have any ideas?
Posted by Ninad on July 16, 2009 under All Posts |
US President, Barrack Obama has been quoted in today’s papers as saying that he is laying the foundation of an education system that would help America compete with China and India in the 21st century.
In the same paper, Kapil Sibal, Education Minister of India, has been quoted as making a strong pitch for private investment and foreign universities.
What’s happening? The US wants to emulate India and India wants to emulate the US !!!
Both the countries have different needs. India needs huge funds to sustain higher education and the government cannot fund all these needs. They have to look for the PPP model (private public partnership) and also open up the sector for foreign universities. Once this is opened, it will, hopefully, bridge the huge gap between demand and supply and also ensure that the quality of education available to students improves dramatically. With more providers and more facilities, students will have a choice and everyone will benefit. There is still so much gap between demand and supply that India can easily accommodate some foreign universities provided they are willing to set up shop in India.
In US, there is a different problem. The country simply needs more graduates. President Obama is hoping that the reform plan will ensure that an additional five million Americans earn degrees and certificates in the next decade. If this gap for graduates in US is not filled, graduates from China and India will come to the US and take these jobs. Hence, the strong desire to have Americans pursue graduation.
It is really interesting and coincidental that statements by leaders from both countries have come on the same day which seems conflicting. Actually, they are not. They are two sides of the same coin.
