This high is low

In its quest to meet the goal of universal education at the primary level, India has neglected its institutions of higher learning. And we might have to pay a heavy price for that

Nishi Malhotra Delhi

Ranjana has a degree in political science. A person with her academic qualification, in possibly any country in the world, would be considered capable of working with a thinktank or even in a media or research organisation. But she is now toiling away in a job that millions of illiterate teenagers and women perform for lack of basic education — she is a maidservant in a middle-class home in Delhi.

Surprising as this may sound, Ranjana’s story is absolutely true (her employer is a relative of this reporter). Think of it and you’ll find that we all have, sometime or the other in India, encountered graduates driving auto rickshaws, PhD holders behind retail sales counters and post grads operating neighbourhood grocery shops – not out of choice but because the educational degrees they possess are worthless. Not because these people aren’t bright and industrious but because the extremely poor quality of ‘higher education’ they received has failed them, failed the resources

gathered and invested by the state in educating them, and thereby failed the development needs of our nation.

In this ten-point agenda prepared by Hardnews to ‘change the face of India’, upgrading the capacity and quality of higher education tops the list. Here’s why:

Even as graduates and postgraduates continue to swell the ranks of the 41 million registered unemployed in India, virtually all sectors of industry, from health to manufacturing to aviation engineering, are reporting or projecting acute personnel shortages. Indian higher education today does not produce enough of a workforce with relevant skills and training in disciplines needed by the nation. When it does, ironically, the education is of such poor quality that the output is ‘unemployable’ in the very sectors in which it is needed, unable to make a meaningful contribution.

The managing director of a Chennai-based manufacturer of capital machinery says, "As the CEO of a medium size engineering company deploying multi-disciplinary technologies in its products, I grapple with the task of continuous induction and training of engineers and technicians. In 20 years at this job, a glaring lack of serious proportions became apparent. Most candidates being interviewed for technical positions and armed at the minimum with a bachelor’s degree in engineering were found wanting in understanding the fundamentals of high school mathematics and physics. Screening tests had to be dumbed down to yield at least a minimum set of plausible candidates. Lack of conceptual clarity, inability to perceive patterns, no competence in applying concepts to diverse areas, are some of the issues that I confronted. And yet, the so called ‘first class’ graduates were quick to recite arcane formulas by rote, but without conceptual clarity. I came to the sad conclusion that 70 per cent of the candidates are not employable and considerable fundamental re-education would be entailed in preparing them to deliver results at work."

If the quality of education is low, the capacity is not great, either. Only eight per cent of India’s population in the college going age-group enrols for higher education. Most seats in the best institutions and universities are competed for and taken by the brightest high school graduates; these prime portals of higher learning today do not serve the needs of the country or act as feeder institutes to universities abroad.