It is today clear that if ever India wants to be a player of some consequence in the world, it can never do so unless all, repeat all, its citizens are literate and knowledgeable. Alas, the government seems ill prepared for the challenge. In India we today have an outdated and useless system of education that prepares quantity, not quality. And even the quantity is not enough because half of India remains illiterate. The money spent by the government is simply wasted in a system that is ill equipped to help India and Indians achieve a higher goal.
Schools are free, but there are too few schools in the villages to make a dent on illiteracy.
The government constantly pleads its lack of resources to set up more schools in the villages. And municipal and government primary schools already set up are so pathetic that no middle class parents will ever want their children to attend them. So the choice is for private education at an affordable price. In the 1980s, it was estimated that the Indian government spent Rs 200,000 per year per student enrolled in the IIT, the country's premier technology institutes. Yet, huge numbers of IIT students migrated out after completing their course, which effectively meant that precious money had been simply been lost.