Improving literacy,
numeracy, and education in India are critical to its sustained development and
economy. As 2014 Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai reminds us, “Education
is one of the blessings of life and one of its necessities”. In
fact, education is even more – it is an imperative for all in achieving success
and staying ahead of the competition in a knowledge-based global economy. As a
good policy, India recognize the value of quality education for all and it has
focused on the Three Es’ (Expansion, Equity, and Excellence). Consequently,
there has been an unprecedented expansiondue
to the privatization of higher education; however, progress in equity and excellence have been slow at best. The rapid
expansion can be best summed up as ‘chaotic’ with an uneven regulatory
landscape and privatization can best be characterized as an entrepreneurial
experiment for the social good, a movement that has provided education access
to millions. Unsurprisingly, however, expansion has not lead to the desired
excellence in learning, teaching, research, and innovation.
Today, India is at a
crossroads requiring further expansion to build capacity for educating its
bulging youth. About 65% of its population is below the age of 35, a trait
Prime Minister Modi proudly considers India’s ‘Demographic Dividends’ given
most of the world is home to an increasingly aging population. Undoubtedly,
India can use voluntary, monetary, and intellectual help/assistance by
individuals, groups, and businesses who are willing and able, and who believe
in India’s huge potential in developing a highly talented workforce to meet the
global needs.
India’s needs are huge and
diverse depending on the geographical location but more importantly the
political leadership and climate. It goes without saying that every community
could use more funds for infrastructure development for teaching and learning.
However, institutions in rural and suburban areas, with a significant number of
first-generation students, have an urgent need for mentors to motivate
students, encourage learning by doing, and de-emphasize rote-memorization.
We surmise that less-well educated parents in the villages and smaller
towns in the 21st century India still do not value education for their daughters.
There are genuine social, societal, and safety issues that make it harder for
women students to study and succeed due to financial, social, and/or logistical
(travelling to and from college and/or where to stay) challenges. Gender-based
inequity exists lot more in rural/suburban settings although there are many
government schemes to support girls/women. The institutions need role
models/mentors, preferably women professionals, who can lead the way for the
female students. Often students in the rural institutions have little or no
career guidance and inadequate support for developing interviewing and
communication skills. Many institutions have limited or no access to
internet; lack functioning computer labs, and have frequent power
interruptions; thus the students can’t access things digitally. Even human
resources may not be adequate to meet the instructional needs and/or the staff
is underpaid and overworked. In other words, the landscape of education in
rural/suburban communities is different, uneven, and resource-limited than
their resource-rich counterparts in the urban settings.
