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FE Editorial : Expandable education

The dismal state of Indian education, be it primary, secondary or tertiary, is well documented by now, with the Annual Status of Education Report and the Programme for International Student Assessment report.

Community colleges provide one possible solution

The dismal state of Indian education, be it primary, secondary or tertiary, is well documented by now, with the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, being but two of the more prominent studies on the Indian education sector, both showing that India lags far behind the developed, and most of the developing, world in terms of gross enrolment ratio, quality of education and access to it. Now, the TeamLease India Labour Report 2012 lays the blame for the low employability of India?s working-age population squarely on their lack of relevant education. The picture it paints of India?s education sector is much the same as ASER or the PISA report did?India?s GER in higher education is 11%, half the world average and way lower than that in developed countries (54%). But rather than stick to the general conventional advice of ?increase government funding, improve quality of education and incentivise attendance?, the report has some specific fixes that are worth looking into. First of all, the report says that a major problem with higher education in India is accessibility?universities and colleges are unevenly distributed across the country, and there aren?t enough. The second is that vocational training is more or less absent in any formal sense, especially since the diplomas handed out by vocational institutions that exist are regarded as inferior by employers or not recognised at all. Towards this, the report says, community colleges could go a long way. Offering what the report calls ?vocational education on steroids?, these community colleges, along with providing the required skills in two years, also provide vertical mobility, which is the opportunity to upgrade diplomas/certificates into two-year associate degrees or even three-year standalone degrees. Coupled with pushing the growth of such institutions across the country, promoting distance education would also go a long way in expanding the reach of relevant, vocation-based education across the country.

It is perhaps pertinent to say that along with allocating resources for initiatives like Aakash?noble, but ineffective given the current framework?the government should spend more on technology that enables distance learning (educational portals, internet connections, etc) that would make the Aakash all the more useful as a learning tool.

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First published on: 28-03-2012 at 02:40 IST
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