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Time to view the crisis in the education sector as an opportunity
Most statistics reveal an appalling story about the Indian education sector. An imaginative relook at the situation along with systemic level changes can leverage the current situation into an opportunity and turn the over 600 million strong group that we call the demographic capital into an economi
A recent report by the Ministry of Human Resources Development revealed that over 1,00,000 schools in India have just one teacher. While the knee jerk response or a reaction with short term vision would be to initiate recruitment of teachers. However, if a long term view is taken of the situation this can be an opportunity towards transforming India’s aging education landscape now that a new policy is under discussion.
Today the education sector is plagued by 4 significant challenges: Rapid globalisation due to the internet revolution; a demand-supply mismatch due to larger numbers of potential students and a sharply falling number of teachers; proliferation of changing technologies; and lastly an evolving and constantly demanding marketplace.
The government’s duty is not just limited to fulfilling the citizen’s right to education but, significantly, the right to quality education. To main integrity of both the goals, a dramatic shift in mindsets along with substantive policy interventions is needed.
For close to 10 years now, India has been celebrating its demographic dividend, that crucial chunk of 600 million Indians under the age of 25. While developed nations are aging rapidly, this young population has the potential to become the economic engine for India and provide a thrust on to the world scene. However, age itself doesn’t yield an advantage, if this population is not employable this demographic dividend can indeed become a demographic liability. Employability in turn depends on the quality of education, so it is a closely connected loop.
India’s education crisis cannot be overcome by incremental change or piece meal initiatives. It needs a transformational mindset that would address the fundamental structural and systemic constraints of education.
Currently an outdate education is being delivered mechanically in schools. What’s needed is dynamic content which can be delivered tailored to the needs of students.
Clearly the education policy should keep the student at the center. After all, it’s the student who is studying to eventually take up a job which would be generated at a later point in time. This would redefine the role of education.
One of the biggest challenges that need to be tackled is the supply constraint and the toll it takes on the infrastructure. Supply is not restrained only in the matter of qualified teachers. It is a triple whammy. Firstly, even if we succeed in achieving the target 30% gross enrolment rate (GER) in the tertiary sector by 2020, over a 100 million students would find themselves without having a university to go to and thus compelled to join programmes out of force and not out of choice.
Coming in second is the much publicised shortage of qualified teachers. This paucity is not only limited to higher education but also to primary and secondary schooling.
A radical rethinking of the education policy would be to embed efficiency in the system without which, there would be no incentive to improve, as is currently the case.
For example, currently how many of our teachers undergo regular training to update themselves with the latest in literature or teaching techniques? Choice and competition egg improved performance.
A stagnant system which hasn’t allowed new forms of education delivery into the system has perpetuated mediocrity and a self sustaining ecosystem. One way of changing this is to rapidly increase the delivery platforms by attracting new players through MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) platforms. This not only will let in international, highly efficient providers but would also dramatically transform the education landscape due to ease of delivery using virtual delivery technology thus immediately easing the supply constraint.
The so called ‘demographic dividend’ will need around 1,000 new Universities by 2020 to truly mould them into high quality employable workforce. What did China do when faced with a similar conundrum a few decades ago?
Rather than sinking in funds and facing administrative nightmares, China very creatively funded overseas education for its nationals and thereby, bypassed creating new educational institutions. This turned out to a far more efficient response financially and administratively than the expected process of constructing new universities. Additionally, studying abroad provided the Chinese with global exposure.
India needs similar leaps of creative thinking to address the crisis plaguing the education sector today. If the government fails to view this challenge as an extraordinary opportunity of changing education’s DNA it would truly be a shame.
* Read the original story by Amit Dasgupta on www.thequint.com