India’s Higher Education !!

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.