Sheer waste of human capital

Is it possible for a country with a per capita income of $7.6 billion to have GDP of just $1? Even though economics textbooks will rubbish such supposition, some of our would-be economists said so in response to questions as part of a survey. The results of a survey conducted by V Kalyan Shankar and Rohini Sahni of Savitribai Phule Pune University on post graduate economics students reveal that not only do these students lack in basic arithmetic skills, their understanding of key concepts is abysmally low. Findings of the survey were published in August 1 issue of the Economic and Political weekly.

“In our survey, students were asked elementary mathematical questions based on the Class VI textbook of the Maharashtra State Board of Education. There were six in all, covering integers, subtraction, percentages, squares, fractions, and algebraic equations. . .  Only 11 of the 200 students could answer all of them correctly,” the Pune University professors write.

Shocking as these findings are, they should not surprise anyone who has some understanding of how centres of higher education function in the country. Pratham’s annual surveys have been highlighting learning deficits of our school students for many years now. Students of class VIII find it difficult to solve basic problems of class IV. The same set of students enter the university system after clearing many hurdles in the form of board examinations. But learning deficits, it seems, acquired at an early stage persist, perpetuating what the Pune university professors call, “long continuum of ignorance” because of lack of remedial measures at any stage. 

Once they enter the university system, there is no incentive to learn skills that should have been acquired much earlier. On the contrary, there is an institutional mechanism to ensure the “continuum of ignorance”. Students of advanced economics are required to have specialized mathematical skills the world over so much so that some scholars have begun to term economics as “social mathematics”. But most universities in the country have made papers on statistics and calculus for economics students optional. 

And in cases where they are compulsory, questions are made textual. Questions like how is hypothesis arrived at or what are the benefits of data tabulation are examples of how papers on quantitative analysis are tamed for the students of economics. Such taming exercise is intended to help students clear examinations without ever bothering to learn skills not learnt in the past. Then there are assistance in the form of guide books to crack examinations. The task is made even easier by the sheer predictability of questions that are asked at the university level.

The emphasis in our university system has always been on clearing examination rather than on acquisition of knowledge. It is not surprising therefore that finished products of the university system are successful examination takers. Some of them graduate to become teachers and professors ensuring the “continuum of ignorance”. To expect them to hold forth on savings rate or primary and secondary sectors of economy is asking for too much. After all, the system has no incentives for learners.

Even as the country is about to embark on an ambitious skill development programme, should we not focus on fixing the basics at centres of higher education? Colleges and universities are being reduced to degree dispensing machines. It is high time they are converted to learning centres. Otherwise we will be wasting the only resource we have in plenty: the human capital.