The reason for allowing the foreign universities to enter the Indian education sector is being said to be that the government would seek to expand options for the students seeking higher education in India’s top B-school destinations which until now remained limited to India’s premier institutes like IIT and IIM. This reform measure would be boosting the structure of higher education in India apart from making it competitive and more cost-effective.
Another major reform is in the form of doing away with the unit tests in the primary schools of Maharashtra and the same would be applicable till Std. VIII. Under current system, four unit tests are held in an academic year. The students would feel less stressful as the hassles of preparing and appearing for frequent tests will no longer exist. This will allow students to spend more time in other leisure activities including outdoor games and other activities. The government has notified the schools to come up with new assessment system to bring out more creative and discover-oriented activities from the students. Some of such measures could be implementation of group discussions, craft works, start-up management projects, among various other activities which are more practical in nature rather than imparting limited theoretical knowledge. This would remove the unnecessary pressure which a student faces and would give them invaluable time to explore different areas. This would also be a step towards the development of an educational system which would be more focussed on project work and live assignments instead of learning by rot.
With this, the UPA government seems strongly resolved to uplift the quality of education in a highly unorganized Indian education industry, slowly but steadily. The Educational reform could go a long way in ensuring quality and competitively priced education for the ever-expanding population of India. Further, in conformation of the standard of Indian education with the international quality, would act as a positive approach in lieu of its broad-based content and highly prospective in nature to impart skilled training and knowledge.
So, what does the Bill really contain?
- Foreign Universities can now set up a campus in India and provide degrees to students in India
- Foreign University will need to deposit Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) as corpus fund and cannot take back the surplus generated from education activities in the country.
- Each institute will have to be registered with the university Grants Commission or any regulatory body in place at the time of registration.
- The bill has a provision under which the government can reject an application of a university if it feels that venture will have an adverse impact on national security.
- The proposed law sets out rules and regulations that foreign educational institutions would have to follow before opening in India. The process would take at least eight months.
More than 160,000 students travel abroad for higher education ever year and the Minister hopes that this number will reduce as foreign universities start operations in India. More than 30 per cent of India’s 1.1 billion people are estimated to be fewer than 14 and it is a large market for graduate courses.
Presently, several foreign universities are already offering courses in India through partnerships with Indian institutions, but they are not allowed to grant foreign degrees.
While clearing the bills to education reforms, the government also needs to ensure that the domestic faculty remains competitive and updated to the courses and content imparted in foreign institutions and universities. At the same time, the government needs to allocate a higher spending agenda towards major universities in order to ensure competitiveness and their ability to keep pace with top foreign universities. The HRD ministry also needs to ensure swift implementation of various education agendas to avoid confusion and hassles going forward.
Other problems would include sporadic announcements of the education reforms. There is a clear need for a chartered plan for the execution and implementation of the reforms, mere announcing would result into nothing but increasing paper-work at the wrong places.
There are various hurdles like capability of faculty to adopt the changed syllabus as per IB standards as the same has been introduced for the CBSE schools. There is a severe shortage of teachers in various parts of India and the changed syllabus would aggravate the problem in the short run.
There has been good news as far as budgetary allocation for the educational scector is concerned. There has been an incremental allocation of additional 15% for the sector from the previous year’s Rs. 26, 800 crore to Rs.31, 036 crore for FY 2010-11.
HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has described this higher education reform as, “A milestone which will enhance choices, increase competition and benchmark quality. A larger revolution than even in the telecom sector awaits us.”
According to the proposal in the bill, the foreign institutes would be treated as private universities which would enjoy quota-free status with respect to admission processes in India. This would mean the foreign universities would not be obliged to reserve admission seats for lower-category class of people. But, in return, these universities would have to follow national laws governing the education industry including registration under the University Grants Commission (UGC).
The HRD minister has invited the Private Sector to play a major part in lifting the education standards in India. “There is need for paradigm shift. The government cannot do this. The private sector has to come forward. The government will create appropriate environment for investment by private sector”
With growing demand, Human Resource is going to play a vital role in shaping the growth of the sector. The education system will have to come good from the grass roots to make them business ready. The HRD ministry is also trying to modernize the Indian Education System by leveraging technology in the operations function. The government has plans to provide Education Degrees online by the year 2011.According to the plan, the students of schools, technical colleges and universities will be able to get their certificates through a centralized online pool for a fee. The process will involve all affiliated educational institutes to submit their degree to a central repository from where the students can access their degrees and print them too.
According to a recent survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council 2010 which analysed 327 business schools across the world, the applications for full – time MBA saw an increase only in 44% of the MBA programs down from 77% of 2008. But during the same period the applications for part–time MBA as well as executive MBA saw an increase of more than 59% compared to the previous year (37%).
There are a number of factors for this trend:
- Almost 60% of the students are looking for a shorter MBA
- The flexibility in MBA programs is becoming a very important issue with the development of full – time, part – time, executive and also online MBA courses
- During recession, people realized the importance of distinguishing themselves from the competition and thus are going for executive MBAs in between their careers
- Many people are also finding it easier to pursue part – time MBAs because this would enable them to juggle their family responsibilities, jobs and also help them grow further in their careers
The HRD ministry is of the opinion that there is an urgent need to create stakes for the faculty and researchers in the system so that the research community feels motivated to create knowledge.
It is high time to recognize that Indian universities are extremely dependent on colleges and institutes for revenues as state governments are in no position to adequately fund the universities, Mr. Sibal said at a recent book release. He added that there is a need for innovative reforms to restructure India’s engineering education.
As it has been seen in cases of universities like Harvard, Yale amongst other, the educational reforms would need the corporate to come forward and move towards establishment of better and efficient educational institutions.
Incidentally, India only produced 8000 PhDs a year as compared to China’s 50,000 last year.
As India competes globally in a variety of industries such as software, chemicals, and engineering equipment, it has the potential to emerge as a global technology leader. Indeed, engineering is a coveted and highly prestigious degree in India. Yet, industry leaders constantly complain about the lack of quality engineers for their industry, and there is significant unemployment amongst graduating engineers.
Here are some statistics from IDFC-SSKI research report on Indian Education (2009).
- Government spends $ 30 billion on education every year
- Citizens spend additionally $ 50 billion on private education
- K-12 segment is worth $ 20 billion
Currently, around 14 million students attend college. However, given the robust annual growth of GDP of more than 9 per cent, it is estimated that India will need to send 22 million students to college in the year 2014.
Mr. Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for HRD has mentioned that he wants to send 30 per cent of India’s college-going-age kids to college. This would mean 30 million more students going to colleges. India presently has around 350 universities and the National Knowledge Commission has stated that India needs around 1,500 universities.
In 2008, it is estimated that India had around 340 million people in the age group of 25-50 year olds who did not have a college degree. This is expected to rise to 380 million by the year 2014. Setting up a good quality university is highly capital intensive and time consuming. Although foreign universities are likely to be allowed to come to India; at best, they will meet a fraction of this demand.
Some statistics which highlight the present educational situation in India:
- Over 60 per cent don’t have electricity
- 46.4 per cent don’t have toilets for girls
- 50 per cent don’t have boundary walls to ensure safety for students.
- Total number of children in 6-14 age group in India eligible for primary education: 19 million
- Number of children in the 6-14 age group who do not go to school: 8 million
- Drop out ratios:
- 25% by class V
- 50% by class VIII
- Number of primary schools in India with only one teacher: 120,000
Though the reforms presently are looking forward to the higher education domain, there is an urgent need to make reforms and changes in the primary education sector. Mere formulation of laws and making primary education would not serve the needs of the country in the long run. Schemes like mid-day meals are losing their shine and are being held as a means of reducing the burden of raising their children by the people. This mentality is in no way helping in developing the nation. Changes have to be implemented in the education system, whereby the students are not being made into machines, but are rather developed to be thought-leaders from the nascent stage. This would prepare them to contribute positively towards developing the nation, instead of being a job seeker adding to the ever rising figure of unemployment.
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