Letter from the Editor
Perhaps the greatest and most socially damaging act of omission of post-independence India’s ruling elites was — and continues to be — neglect of education. Despite incontrovertible evidence from around the world that a well-educated population is the sine qua non or prerequisite of national development, this country’s investment in education has averaged a mere 3.5 percent of GDP (gross domestic product) during the past 60 years since independence. This is a sharp contrast with the global average of 5 percent and the 6-7 percent of GDP that the developed industrial nations provide for the education of their children and youth. And it’s pertinent to note that not only are their GDPs larger, their populations are smaller. Therefore their per capita investment in developing human resources is many multiples higher than in India.It’s against this backdrop the intelligentsia has to evaluate the worth of the pathetic bleating of the country’s politicians and me-first businessmen who continuously exhort Indian industry and society in general to get ready to compete in the newly emerging global marketplace for goods and services. The plain truth is that contemporary India’s education system is badly rundown with numerous studies indicating that in primary education teacher absenteeism is rife and learning outcomes are abysmal; in secondary education capacity is grossly inadequate and rote learning is normative, and that hardly one-third of the country’s college and university graduates are employable. Moreover with the dilapidated vocational education system able to accommodate barely 1-2 percent of school leavers, Indian industry which is fortuitously growing at 12 percent per year, is experiencing an unprecedented shortage of even minimally skilled workers and managers.
But wait, all is not lost. The dramatic growth and development of post-liberalisation India’s IT (information technology) and related industries which have dazzled the world, offer the possibility of a great leap forward in Indian education. Suddenly new 21st century information communication technologies (ICT) offer the prospect of students in the most neglected and remotest corners of the country being able to access lectures of the country’s top academics through new technology-driven distance education initiative and the country’s 200 million adult illiterates have a chance to become functionally literate after a mere 40 hours of learning.
These and other wonder products and services including e-classrooms, electronic whiteboards, ergonomically designed classroom furniture etc which offer the opportunity to bridge the massive education divide between India and the West, are profiled in this first-of-its-type cover feature conceptualised and put together by EducationWorld’s team of correspondents countrywide led by assistant editor Summiya Yasmeen. It’s an inspiring story which offers hope of saving the country’s collapsing education system.
I have to end this letter on a sad note. EducationWorld’s Delhi-based marketing manager Mohan Lal Gaur who played a major role in keeping this then struggling publication alive for almost seven years, passed away in his sleep on April 23. An indefatigable optimist this septuagenarian, who marketed Soviet Land for several decades, always had words of encouragement and advice for his colleagues. We all miss his cheerful optimism.
Dilip Thakore