By Dr. Shashank Shah. The author is Visiting scholar, ’17 Harvard Business School

Education and skill development are important goals that are linked to the holistic development of a country. Education is the key to help people break the cycle of poverty.

The second of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was introduced in 2000 and focused on achieving universal primary education. In September 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) included ‘Education’ as the MDG of achieving universal primary education by 2015 wasn’t achieved. The SDG on education is also much broader and deeper as it covers education beyond primary education. The SDG on ‘Quality Education’ emphasises ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’.

THE INDIAN SCENARIO

Rising enrollments

Though India is known for her institutes of higher education like the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), and Indian Institute of Science (IIs’), the general scenario across primary, secondary and higher education systems has not been very encouraging. However, things seem to be improving and a lot more remains to be done.

Primary education

India has made significant progress in universalising primary education. Enrolment for the age group 6-14 was 96.9 per cent in 2016. Some states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have low enrolment where the proportion of girls who remain out of school amounts to 9.7 per cent, 9.9 per cent and 8.5 per cent respectively. While India has achieved near-universal enrolment in primary and secondary education, the learning levels of children are low. Addressing teacher shortage is of paramount importance as there is a shortage of 689,000 teachers in primary schools. The pupil-teacher ratio in India is 31 compared to a world average of 23.7 (2014). The number in the United States stands at 15.

The District Information System for Education (DISE) and the National University of Education Planning and Administration 2015 Report shows some alarming statistics regarding Indian schools. According to the report, the average number of classrooms in primary schools is 3.6 and the average number of teachers per school stands at 5.5. Apart from a lack of adequate urinal and lavatory facilities, electricity is available only in 32.26 per cent of primary schools in rural India.

Secondary education

The situation in India’s secondary education system is also not impressive with just 60 per cent net enrolment. East Asia and Latin America have higher net enrolment rates in secondary education at 70 per cent and 82 per cent respectively. English as a medium of instruction is used only in 15.49 per cent of primary schools and 28.73 per cent of secondary schools. Hindi as a medium of instruction is used in 51.50 per cent of primary schools and 43.18 per cent of secondary schools.

Higher education

The statistics in India’s higher education system are also not comforting. Many children do not even reach graduation levels. In India 43 per cent of children drop-out before finishing upper primary school and high school completion is only 42 per cent. According to the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2016 Report, there are 799 universities, 39,071 colleges and 11,923 standalone institutions in India. The top three states with the highest number of colleges are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Bangalore and Jaipur districts top in terms of the number of colleges with 970 and 616 colleges respectively. In spite of this, the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in India for higher education is an abysmally low 24.5 per cent. The world average is 34 per cent and the numbers in the United States and European Union stand at 87 per cent and 68 per cent respectively (World Bank, 2016).