Reduce Learning Deficit To Boost Education

Context: The increasing number of students in colleges and universities has no meaning unless the quality of education can be ensured.

Status of Higher education in India: Based on All India Survey of Higher Education

• More than 3.7 crore students enrolled in 993 universities, 39,931 colleges and over 10,000 stand-alone institutions.
  • Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for higher education stands 27% (NITI Aayog recommends achieving 50% GER)
• Predominance of undergraduate courses:  Almost 80% of enrolment is for undergraduate courses. (5% of these are in the sciences)
• Presence of more colleges in rural areas: About 60% are in the rural area (with low enrolment) –
  • About 6,400 colleges have an enrolment of fewer than 100 students, while only about 1,700 colleges have more than 3,000 students.

Reasons for the low quality of education (with reference to teaching in sciences)

• Sub-standard infrastructure: E.g. buildings, laboratories and libraries,
• Paucity of good quality teaching resources: Proper teaching, as well as training in laboratory techniques, is more of an exception rather than a rule. 
• Lack of good quality textbooks in vernacular language: while the language of instruction is usually the vernacular in many institutions.
• Lack of exposure: Most schools, even the elite ones in metro regions, routinely do not expose their students to any kind of laboratory work.
  • Board exams do not rigorously test laboratory skills makes it irrelevant for the schools.
• Paucity of funding: has taken a toll in terms of the expansion of human and physical infrastructure.
  • Obsession with university rankings among education planners has led to a disproportionate amount of resources being lavished on a few select institutions.
  • Schemes such as Institutes of Eminence only further exacerbate this inequality. (not to argue that one should not promote high quality.)

Way forward: Paying attention to the enormous learning deficit.

• Increase resources allocation.
• Find localised solutions to the problems faced by institutions: by empowerment and decentralisation rather than mandating standards.