Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'The state of our education' that was published in Newsband

The state of our education

India fails to figure in the top 200 in world university rankings. Why? According to a survey made in 2012, not one of India’s higher educational institutions, even the much-vaunted IITs or IIMs, crack the world’s top 200. In contrast, China has seven institutions in the top 200. If even the best of India’s higher education institutions do not perform well when held to international standards, there is clearly a serious problem with the state of the country’s colleges and universities.

Of course, the problem is much larger than the IITs and IIMs, which service only a small proportion of the population. The majority of young Indians eligible for college-level instruction receive training elsewhere, and there are unmistakable signs that these students are ill-served by the quality of available instruction. Indian graduates are poorly trained and lack employability, according to a survey. This survey says that more than half of all Indian graduates suffer from some degree of skill-deprivation.

For a young nation, with a majority of its population below 25 years of age, addressing this quality deficit in higher education should be a priority.

It doesn’t seem to be so, despite the big talk. The bills that aim to address the structural problems in the higher education sector — of access, quality and regulation — have been stuck in Parliament. Higher education reform is hobbled by a lack of political will and imagination. The government risks a demographic disaster if it continues to hem and haw.

This is land of reservations, nepotism and corruption. How can we figure in top 200 institutions in world? The disease is spread in IITs and IIMs also. Then how can one expect academic excellence from any of these institutions. Quality of life and thoughts are poor in this country, hence we never compete and make our educational institutions world class. The state of our education reflects upon the quality of our leaders and system - something to be ashamed about.

It is absolutely ridiculous that our government has failed to harness the potential that the Indian mind exhibits in foreign universities, where Indians enroll in large numbers and typically outperform their peers, contributing to those institutions' research credentials and academic standing. Meanwhile our government has reduced higher education to a tool for caste-based politics and colleges to vote banks, with little emphasis on high quality education, and none on research. More deplorable is that fact that some of our prominent leaders like Chidambram, Kapil Sibal, Rahul Gandhi have themselves studied at Harvard, and our prime minister at Oxford. It appears that they just don't think that the Indian masses deserve the kind of academic experience that they benefited from.

With the kind of education and skills that our education system imparts, one fears that we might become a nation of 'mostly' underachievers by international standards in the coming years.