Educations Sector in India

Between 1990 and 2010 Mainstream educational institutions- particularly those teaching the BA/BCom/MA/MCom/BSc/Msc completely missed the changing economy. They retained their old fashioned courses with nary a change. So these institutions were hugely impacted by the phenomenal growth of courses like those offered by Management Institutes and Computer Institutes. The institutions that continued with good quality basic technology degrees like the IITs became recognised and acceptable around the world. the Pvt sector stepped in and offered a slew of computer and management education ranging from very poor to barely good. During the same period the demographic cycle of India was resulting in a very large population of young people. Presently 43% of India’s 1.2 billion population is below 18 years. This change in the demographic structure of India resulted in a huge crush for admissions in our antiquated schools and colleges. Colleges that were notorious for minimal teaching standards saw huge rush for admissions. The result was that most colleges offering the old style BA/BCom /BSc courses never south to change anything- either the pedagogy or the teaching methodology.

But the rush for admissions pushed India’s mainstream education even more strongly towards the old style exam oriented system- passing the exam gave you a degree though the course itself didn’t give you either skills or an education! As a result the pvt sector sensing an money making opportunity offered classes to teach you how to beat the exams- soon the most profitable thing in education was to set up coaching classes for everything from IIT, To IIM entrance exams! The tutorial /Coaching business became huge.

Meanwhile, almost like a backdrop activity which passed the mainstream education sector like a ship in the middle of the night was the huge growth in global IT sector- which pulled out even mediocre teachers out of college /tutorial classrooms into mainstream jobs in IT sector which paid far more.  As our mainstream educational sector buried their heads in sand like the proverbial Ostriches, bright people were moving out of teaching jobs across the country.  Yet another scene was laying itself out: this time in the  pre-primary, primary and secondary school sector: The growth of IT  and services sector ( financial/hospitality) brought back a huge demand for English education.  The pvt sector stepped into the pre-primary and into mainstream schooling with pvt schools- to beat the issue of affiliation they offered International school diplomas rather than state boards.

In the last 10 years there has been a sea change in the growth of private sector firms offering so called vocational courses.  Almost all of the sector was driven by the demand for people with specific skills- such as computer hardware technicians and so on. However, they failed to read the trends: The demand for skills in specific sectors has changed significantly to a demand for employable graduates and undergraduates. The admission cutoffs for even basic BA degrees have become so high that it is leading to very large pool of kids at very poor colleges . So we have graduates with no skills at all and undergraduates with  neither degrees nor skills nor maturity. These kids are unsuited to the type of economy India’s is headed for – mid- to high end services sector.

India’s private sector providing vocational courses does not have the skills to recognize and understand trends, nor do they have the abilities to adapt their programs on a dynamic basis.  If mainstream educational sector has gone so completely wrong in understanding  the market what hope is there for private sector when all they are driven by is short term profits.