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.
