The status of education in India in present times is chequered to say the least, messy and grossly incomplete – a condition that has persisted over decades. Moreover, the regular exodus of good, qualified fresh graduates to foreign shores leaves the mother country bereft of utilising their skills even though the country should have the first right to it. The picture is choppy and untidy right from basic and elementary education and extends to higher education that suffers from lack of resources almost uniformly.

Starting from the beginning, it has been found that the government’s ambitious Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, elementary education for all project, is likely to face a major gap between demand and supply of facilities. The government’s noble intention to get as many children as possible into schools is flawed. While there is still time to tackle the challenge to be posed by universalisation of elementary education, the immediate worry is to accommodate the 80 lakh children who are expected to join secondary school in the next two years. The Planning Commission feels Rs 9,000 crore will be required annually to pay salaries to eight lakh teachers. Creating school infrastructure will also run into several hundred crores. At present there are 2.02 crore children enrolled in Classes IX and X. Of these, 1.26 crore are in government schools. By 2007 the total number of swell to 2.89 crore. And by 2010-11, there will be more than three crore children ready to join Class IX. Of these, 2.3 crores will be from government schools.

The HRD Ministry knows it is up against a major challenge and expects a flood by 2008 but it still has no bailout plan. Officials admit the matter is still being debated. Foremost among the issues that need solution is mobilization of resources for this operation. Secondary education being the responsibility of the states, the Centre only pitches in with a few hundred crores of rupees. Most of it goes into running Kendriya Vidyalayas and the Navodaya Vidyalayas. Even if it wanted to shell out more money, the HRD ministry admits it does not have the money. The mid-day meal and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan take up most of the funds generated from the 2% education cess. The Centre’s budgetary allocation to these programmes has been Rs 8,000 crore this year, but only a measly Rs 1,500 crore for secondary education. One centrally funded scheme that could have mitigated this impending crisis is vocationlisation. But like the secondary schools education sector, this too is in a sorry state. Out of 92,000 secondary education schools only 7,300 run vocational training programmes. The scheme does not offer what the market wants. The mandate is fractured. Besides the HRD Ministry, the labour industry and rural and urban development ministries also have a say in this. Convergence is required but that has not been achieved.

UNESCO in one of its regional seminars recently has warned that in the next few years there will be a massive shortfall of 25 million teachers and that includes India and sub-Saharan countries, unless steps were taken to accelerate teachers’ training programmes. Director Asgar Hussain of UNESCO has expressed concern that a large number of teachers from the under-developed countries, specially in subjects like science and mathematics are going to developed countries in search of greener pastures. In the Indian context the expert feels teachers do not get the status and respect they deserve or received in the past. Frankly speaking, only those people opt for a teaching career who do not get any other job. The salary of teachers is still the lowest and they are still at the same level where they were in the 1960s – the best and motivated brains are going elsewhere as parents want their children to have a comfortable life and higher salaries. It will not be wrong to say that the status of teachers has to be enhanced if we want them to play their role effectively.

Another angle to the vexed education portfolio in our country is the school level dropout rates in primary and middle school levels. They have reduced from almost 65 per cent in the 1960s to 35 per cent now, but this still is too high in many states. A recent Planning Commission study showed it is 62 per cent in unbifurcated Bihar, 61 per cent in Assam, 57 per cent in Rajasthan and 42 per cent in Andhra Pradesh. Other difficult states are unbifurcated Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and most of the North eastern states. The dropout rates among boys and girls is almost identical. It is 35.85% among boys and 33.72% among girls. At the middle school, Bihar has the highest dropout rate with 79 per cent, followed by Meghalaya with 72 per cent, Assam with 69% and West Bengal with 68%, respectively. While the rate among boys is 52.3%, it is 53.5 per cent among girls. However, the overall literacy rate has increased from 52 per cent to 65 per cent between 1991-2001 and the projected target for 2007 is 74.83 per cent.

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by Congress Party finding itself in a spot over financing higher education – elementary as well as university education posing the resources crunch as they do – is open to the idea of allowing foreign investment in higher education, according to Human Resources Ministry Officials. However, the government wants to have detailed consultations with all stake holders, before firming up a view on the issue. They believe that the government would have to mobilise opinion first since the Left parties are opposed to the idea.