Educating India

The findings of media research firm TAM, that educational institutions were the single largest advertisers in the print media in 2004 (up from the sixth position in 2003), should come as no surprise, given how the sector appears to be booming.

Data from the National Sample Survey, coincidentally also out around the same time as the TAM numbers, also reflect this surge in spending on education by the household sector.

While 1.2 per cent of the per capita consumption expenditure of individuals was on education in 1983, this rose to 2.4 per cent in 1993, and then to 2.8 per cent in 1999; from there the figure rose dramatically to 4.4 per cent.

In urban areas, the rise has been even faster, from 2.1 per cent in 1983 to more than double that number in 1999 and then to 6.3 per cent in 2003""the rural areas saw per capita spending percentages rise from 0.8 per cent to 1.9 and 2.9 per cent for the same years.

With a significant rise in wage levels for each jump in the education level, even the not so well-off in the country are spending more to educate their children.

Given the close correlation between education and GDP growth, this can only be good news for the country. A recent analysis by the World Bank, which examined per capita income data for 121 countries and linked this with its Knowledge Economy Index, found a reasonably strong correlation between the two.

The Bank examined both the Republic of Korea and Ghana, polar opposites today, and tried to decipher the reason for the almost 12-fold difference in their per capita income despite these being equal around 40 years ago.

It concluded that while 40 per cent of the difference could be attributed to differences in physical and human capital accumulation, the rest (60 per cent) is attributable to the difference in knowledge.

Yet, for all the proliferation of teaching institutions, quality remains a serious issue. While one survey found that 80 per cent of those who passed Class V from Municipal Corporation of Delhi schools in Delhi could not read or write their names, drop-out ratios are as high as 40 per cent in primary schools and go up to around 70 per cent by secondary school.

The UR Rao report found that if you leave out the IIMs, the average Indian business school has fewer than four teachers!

And in the case of engineering colleges, there is such a dearth of qualified teachers that one shudders to think of the quality of education being imparted""in 2000-01, according to one estimate cited by Dr Rao, while engineering institutes required 26,130 teachers with PhDs and 34,840 MTechs, what was available were 5,862 PhDs and 11,035 MTechs.

If India's booming education sector is to deliver the goods, and not just certificates, some serious thought will have to be paid to getting more qualified teachers.

That will mean increasing salaries to respectable levels, and perhaps allowing the corporatisation of educational institutes. Meanwhile, bodies that monitor standards, government and private, will have to get a lot more active than they are today, and that includes making available relevant data available to the public.