How Higher Education has been ruined in India?
By: Sahezpreet Singh
Tags: Present, Corruption, Future, Education

“Ensuring Quality Higher Education is one of the most important things we can do for future generations.” -Ron Lewis

What comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘Education’? According to me, it is a necessity for human life which gives humans knowledge about how to behave, learning, creativity and many more things to survive in daily life. Now what we expect from an educated person? His education makes him humble and not arrogant, creative, social and many more things. But if we talk about an educated person then we also have to know what an educated person expects after completing his education. But hold on, is there a good learning environment in which a person can complete his/her education, especially in the case of higher education? I think this is a topic to be discussed globally, but I’m just talking about Indian education because I’m a part of this education.

Purpose of Education: — In simple words, the meaning of Education is to make an individual’s life meaningful. Education is all about ideas, innovation, and creativity.

The reality about the purpose of Education in India: — In India, the primary purpose of about 80% of educational institutions is to mint money. Most of these institutions are private. Therefore, private institutions have made a business out of educating the youth whereas the government institutes have failed to provide a good education.

First, let’s talk about government institutions. Government institutes in India are a hope for the students who can not afford to pay much for education as they provide lots of scholarships and have lesser fees than private institutes. But there are many things which make the government institutes the worst. Let’s see why:

Redundant Curriculum: — Government institutes stick to the curriculum that they had used years ago. There are no updations in the curriculum. If we talk about technology there is not update in technology on time. So, in simple words, the world is 10–20 years ahead of what is taught in the Indian Government institutes/ universities. There are some good institutes as well- which keep updating their curriculum like the Indian Institute of Technology, National Institute of Technology. But they are only a few.

Government institutes stick to the curriculum that they had used years ago. There are no updations in the curriculum. If we talk about technology there is not update in technology on time. So, in simple words, the world is 10–20 years ahead of what is taught in the Indian Government institutes/ universities. There are some good institutes as well- which keep updating their curriculum like the Indian Institute of Technology, National Institute of Technology. But they are only a few. More theoretical than Practical: — In government institutes, more theoretical than practical knowledge is provided. There are no case studies and real-life problems.

In government institutes, more theoretical than practical knowledge is provided. There are no case studies and real-life problems. Untrained teachers: — Teachers are not doing much effort to learn more. They always stick to their core subjects. If a new subject comes in the curriculum they do not like to teach that subject and instead deliver it via guest lecturers.

Teachers are not doing much effort to learn more. They always stick to their core subjects. If a new subject comes in the curriculum they do not like to teach that subject and instead deliver it via guest lecturers. Lack of Regular teachers: — In today’s era where education is very important, there is a lack of regular teachers in government institutes. There are more guest lecturers than regular teachers. Guest lecturers are only for some time and their salary is also less which is why they are not able to give good quality education.

Now let’s talk about private institutes. The private institutes are just like a business company. They look at students as their customers. They just want to make money from the students. A poor student can’t dream to study in an expensive institute like these. I understand that they have facilities but they just advertise it as a product. Students who are graduates from many of these institutes ruin their careers.

Indian Education becomes a business. But it is not good for the growth of the nation.

According to the Economics Times[1], “India is in the middle of an engineering crisis”. Why? Every year lakhs of engineers graduate from these institutes. But are they worthy of holding up complete jobs without training? No. The answer lies in the fact that students only focus on the marks in their subjects rather than the knowledge. Even good CGPA students are not able to perform jobs properly because they only focused on marks for their entire 4 years. And the result is- industry-academia gap.

All of these factors result in increased unemployment. According to the Business Standard[2], NSSO ( The National Sample Survey Office) report, the urban unemployment rate was 9.7% in 2018. Below is a figure showing the results of the Urban employment report.

According to Business Standard[3], the National Statistical Commission (NSC)’s report says that the job crisis is real as unemployment hits 6.1%, highest in 45 years, which is really shameful. This report is shown below,

Now the question is how do we make the education system better?

Here are some solutions to this:

Skill Training: Give skill training to the students so that they are able to improve themselves and earn some bread to survive and live a better life.

Infrastructure with good technology: Give students a good infrastructure with good technology, so that they keep themselves upgraded according to the new trends.

Improve the Quality of teachers: Training the teachers is also a very important thing to be considered. It’s the responsibility of the institute to hold workshops and training sessions for training the teachers about the new technologies so that they are well prepared to teach the students.

Solving real-life problems and use cases: This exercise can improve the practical knowledge of the students. A use case always gives motivation to a student to do something on their own.

This is the right time to manage our education system and upgrade it as needed.

References: -

[1] “India is in the middle of an engineering crisis” [The Economics Times]

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/education/india-is-in-the-middle-of-an-engineering-education-crisis/articleshow/63680625.cms

[2] “Urban unemployment rate at 9.7% in Q3CY18, reveals NSSO report” [Business Standard]

https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/urban-unemployment-rate-at-9-7-in-q3cy18-reveals-nsso-report-119060100033_1.html

[3] “Job crisis for real as unemployment hits 6.1%, highest in 45 years” [Business Standard]

https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/job-crisis-for-real-as-unemployment-hits-6-1-highest-in-45-years-119053101462_1.html