India's education story

Last night I had dinner with Ravi, a friend from India. The conversation turned into the topic of education so I asked him about the NASSCOM report that 75% of Indian information technology students could not qualified to work in the industry. I wanted to know about why Indian education system became so bad in recent years.

Ravi told me: “It is sad that something like this happen. Not long ago we are successful because our students are carefully selected and well qualified. Global business are pouring in million dollars per month, many IT jobs are created, economy improves significantly, and more IT jobs are needed. In just few years, Indian cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad became the centers of IT outsourcing. Our success brings in high demand for IT workers so government directs schools to develop more IT workers. However, there is no plan on how to do it. It is up to the schools to do whatever they can.”

“You cannot expected to have hundred thousands of students without hiring additional professors. Where can you find thousand of IT professors? Where do you find classrooms for additional students? Since there is no strategy, no plan, no funding, no direction, things become very chaotic and as the quantity go up, the quality go down very fast. Because of high demands in IT industry, many students want to study IT. Traditionally, students need to pass exams with high score to get in IT department but with high demand, bribery became a common way to get high scores. The admission standard is lower to make it easier to get more students in. When schools do not select the best and the brightest to enter than you cannot expect the best and the brightest to graduate. When schools allow so many students to enrol with minimum qualification than they will graduate many unqualified people.”

I asked: “But there are trainings, homeworks, tests, exams to make sure that students learn something ... ”

Ravi shook his head: “When you have so many unqualified students to come in, things begin to change. There are large scale of copying, cheating and other means to pass tests and get degrees. The whole education system has become a vicious circle of people who practice shortcuts, teach shortcuts and tricks, and those who have to use the shortcuts to get degrees. Colleges and universities have become places of corrupt practices leading to degrees that serve no purpose. Some good teachers want to follow the old rules of morality but lose to those who sell material to let students pass national exams. With money students can buy admission to college. They can buy test answers materials, they can bride test examiners, they can have school officials to change their grades, they can have someone to take the tests for them.”

I asked: “But if everybody know such corruption then what does government do about it?

He laughed: “It is not a secret. Everybody know. For several years, Indian newspapers have printed articles about corruptions in schools but nothing happen. There are more important to do than solving this issue. India has several states, some are well developed but some are very poor. Local government insists of having more IT students because they hope that it will bring in foreign investments and prosperity. Every government officials look at Bangalore or Hyderabad with some degree of envy. They know that having an IT workforce will bring in jobs. They know that there is a critical shortage of high technology workers so they push their local schools to produce more IT workers. Unfortunately, without a good selection during admission, without good professors, and without a proper training programs, they only develop many IT graduates with no skills, no knowledge, and no jobs.”

“Even in bad situation, if students are willing to learn, if they acquire some knowledge, they have good chances of getting jobs. However, many students adopt bad habit of copying homeworks and bribing the test examiner. These behaviours show that students only want degrees and not knowledge. Most students do not realize this until they have to go to find jobs. By that time, it is too late. After investing four years in schools, there are several million IT students without skills and without jobs. That is why NASSCOM have to report as an alarm to the industry and government.”

Ravi shook his head: “I feel very sad every time I came back to my old school. It is no longer the school that I came from anymore. It changed so much. Today, India economy is doing very well and we have a lot of rich people. In every universities, there is a small number of students who come from those wealthy families. They do not have to find jobs because jobs are reserved for them. They will work in their family business so for them degree is just a showpiece. It is thing to put in their business card or display in their offices. It give them a status in the society. Most do not go to school to get educated. They go to school just to have fun and meet young girls. They have money so they often have many followers. These are students who surround their “rich-boys” to go to parties and learn bad habits. Schools became their ultimately place for party. I think every school have about ten to fifteen per cent students who come to college not to study but for fun. They misbehave, have bad attitude and sometime even challenge teachers. The teachers are reluctant to give them bad grades because these rich students are connected to powerful families. Some teachers receive special gift by support these rich students.”

“With the aim of getting degree, some students become members of organized gangs. They rule the schools. No one dare to oppose them. For a reasonable amount of money they would manage everything for one who can pay. They sell test materials, bribe test examiners, change bad grades to good grades. The result is that with money people can almost get anything. This is already happen in schools, colleges and universities in Bihar. Now Uttar Pradesh also has similar problems. Both of these states have the highest number of college graduates but no jobs. This malady is now spreading to other states too. Not long ago, a large number of test examiners in Bangalore refused to inspect examination. They did not want to face students who would demand top grade at the point of a knife or a gun.”

“The entire education is chaotic and corrupted but now the results are clear: Degree alone do not guarantee jobs. Without knowledge, no one can go far. The situation is getting worst, the number of skilled workers are limited but the wages are increasing fast so foreign companies who came here for lower costs are now withdrawal. Last year, many of them are relocated to Malaysia, China, or Indonesia. Even large Indian IT companies like TCS, Infosys, Mahindra, Wipro are opening offices in Europe, the U.S and elsewhere. They no longer invest in India because their main assets are skilled workers but India no longer have skilled workers. We already deplete all of them. We are experiencing critical shortage of IT workers, despite several million IT students graduate each year.”

I asked: “What do you think will happen there? Is there any hope?”

Ravi was quiet for awhile and said: “Revamping of the whole education system is needed but I am not sure that we can do that. We are losing the IT market and losing the best opportunity to rebuild India. When younger generation do not care about getting educated but only go after degrees. There is not much hope. In this globalized world, things can change very fast. The law of competition dictate everything. There is a window of opportunity, if you do not seize that somebody will. Your loss is somebody gain.”

I asked: “So is this the government to blame? Is this the lack of education strategy or plan? ...

Ravi shook his head: “If you look for someone to blame then there are many. However I think ultimately it is the students. It is their future, it is their lives, it is their careers, and if they do not take care of their own future then it is their problem. If they do not learn that knowledge and skills are the only things they have in this fast changing world than it is their problem. They should have known that it is in their own interest to acquire knowledge before having a degree.”

Sources

  • Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University

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