Lets have a chat about India…

My last post was about Japan, one of the wold leaders in education. Now, I would like to look at the flip side, India.

Long story short, India invests less money (3.3% of it’s GDP) than almost any other nation (the average being 5.8%) of that funding 95% goes towards teachers salaries with almost no funds placed towards learning materials and tools. The results of this, and other factors result in a population that is largely illiterate, 34% to be exact. 34 out of 100 may not seem a large number, but canister the shear mass of the country, if in 2008 the national population of India was 1,139,964,932 (as estimated by the World Bank) that would leave 387,588,077 unable to read or write. Granted this has improved dramatically from the 12% literacy rate at the end of British rule in 1947, but it still leaves the vast majority of the population in the backwaters of unskilled labor when it comes to employment.

Lets take a closer look at why the lack of funding in the Indian school system is crippling not only the education system, but the futures of children as well. Because India allocates such limited funds for it’s schools, the quality and quantity of materials, and indeed facilities, provided are limited. Also, the quality of teachers in the public schooling system is low, as good teachers are lured away from the system to more lucrative positions in the private sector. But it’s not only the quality of educators that becomes an issue, but the quantity. 75% of government run schools in India are under-staffed, resulting in an average class size of 40 students per class. More startling, perhaps, is the fact that on average only 75% of teachers show up for work each day.

A far as solutions go, Common Schooling or a sharing of recourses between private and public schools. Others propose a voucher system to allow less affluent children to attend private schools. However each solution has it’s downfalls, and in the end, perhaps the most direct method of allocating more funding for education on the federal level is the best solution.

I could go on, believe me I could, but instead I would like to leave you with some links that will provide a much more comprehensive overview than I can provide.

The Voice of Barat
The Voice of Bharat is an organization that examines all aspects of Indian development, from the effects of Micro-lending to Educational issues. The link above links directly to the findings of the 2009 ASER(Annual Status of Education Report).

Wikipedia
This Wikipedia article provides a historical view of Literacy in India and outlines past and present actions by individuals and the government to increase literacy rates in India.

The ViewsPaper
This e-article takes a look that the shortcomings of education in India, and assesses potential solutions.

Thanks,
Watson