something about India’s education

Why is India still a developing country and what is stopping it from being a developed country

This particular question strikes me every time when I read something about India’s education

 system. I see India’s education system as a stumbling block towards its objectives of achieving

 inclusive growth.


Let me inform you about certain startling facts. India is going to experience a paradox of

nearly million people

 joining the workforce but most of them will lack requiste skills and the mindset for

productive employment according to a report in DNA. India has about 550 million people under the

 age of years out of which only 11% are enrolled in tertiary institutions compared to the

 world average of


I wouldn’t be laying too much emphasis on the drawbacks of India’s public education system

 because it has been an issue well debated over in the past and the main flaws have already

been pointed out before. I will be focusing on how the education system’s failure is leading

to another social issue of income inequality and hence, suggest certain policies to improve

 India’s education system and reduce inequality.

The really critical aspect of Indian public education system is its low quality. The actual
 quantity of schooling that children experience and the quality of teaching they receive are
 extremely insufficient in government schools. A common feature in all government schools is

the poor quality of education, with weak infrastructure and inadequate pedagogic attention.

What the government is not realising right now is that education which is a source of human

capital can create wide income inequalities. It will be surprising to see how income inequalities

 are created within the same group of educated people.Let me illustrate this with the help of an

 example:

Let us take P be an individual who has had no primary or higher education. His human capital

 is zero and hence it bears no returns. Let  be an individual who completed his MBA from S.P

 Jain college and let R be an individual who completed his MBA from  Ahmadabad. The average
 rate of return for an MBA student is .  gets a rate of return of  and

R gets a rate of return of due to the difference in the reputation and quality of the

management school. Let the income of  and  be .In a period of  years,  will be having

the same income as he does not possess human capital. For the same time period  will earn an

income of  and  will earn an income . Now lets see what

 happens when the rate of return on human capital doubles. Earnings of P will not change since

he does not have any human capital. Now Q is going to earn .  going to

earn . Flabbergasting! As soon as return on human capital increases

proportionate

ly income inequality increases. With return on human capital doubling,  income increases by

 and  income increases by.



The above example just shows the effect of the quality of human capital n income inequality.


if the government does not improve education system particularly in rural areas the rich will


which will also be a step towards reducing income inequality