Educational Reforms in India

The HRD ministry has allowed the entry of the Foreign Universities to set-up
campuses on Indian shores to boost higher education for top B-school students. While
on the other hand, a revolutionary change in taking the educational system of CBSE
in conformation to the international standard aptly serves the interest of primary
education.

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.

The traditional process of getting degree certificates has always been a pain. The
lackadaisical management approach in a lot of universities makes it even more
difficult to get hold of the degree certificates. The online process will simplify the
process to a great extent. Moreover, with a central online repository the degrees will
be safe for future use. Another major benefit of the online degree certificates that the
government is betting on is the reduction in forgery of degree certificates which is
rampant. With a single source of truth available at the ministry’s disposal, it will
become difficult for someone trying to manipulate the degrees. The ministry also
plans to open up the repository access for Employers looking to verify the credentials
of their prospective employees.

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.

The author is a participant at Indian Institute of Management, Indore.

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