Shadow of the Crescent

Bangalore: The drought of education in India has reached the extreme as it ranks sixth among the seven emerging economies of the world, in terms of education quality. The country has scored only 3.3 points in the study, in terms of primary, secondary, tertiary and demographic parameters, while Russia topped the chart with 7.3 points.

As per the Assocham study, India was at the last position in terms of quality of secondary education while Russia and Brazil had maximum scores. The quality of tertiary education in India was lowest among the other emerging nations. The points it scored on the scale of 2, was 0.1. Even though the demographics of India are considered its strength, the country has scored the minimum in this too and was ranked at last place. Moreover, in terms of students enrollment for primary education, India is highly incompetitive with the gross enrollment ratio standing at 98.1.

"Serious attention needs to be paid towards the education system. India may stand to loose its competitive advantages against the other countries in long term if corrective measures are not taken to strengthen the Indian education system qualitatively," said Sajjan Jindal, ASSOCHAM President while releasing the ASSOCHAM Eco Pulse (AEP) Study 'Comparative Study of Emerging Economies on Quality of Education'. It was carried out on the basis of 20 parameters relating to primary, secondary, tertiary education and higher education and demography and data provided by UNESCO, IMF, WEF, Financial Times was used for the purpose.

Among the rest five countries, China has secured second place with scoring 6.7 points, while Brazil has positioned itself at third place with 5.56 score points as the quality of education in Brazil remains stable across all levels of primary, secondary and higher education. Mexico has been ranked at fourth place on the strength of its higher education. South Africa, a relatively new entrant to the club of developing economies, has managed to be on fifth place on the strength of its tertiary education and demographic qualities though it lags far behind in primary education. However, Indonesia stands at the last position with an overall score of 2.68 points. The gross enrollment ratio is highest in Brazil (148.5), followed by China (116.2) and Russia (113.8). Even Indonesia (110.9) and South Africa (105.1) enjoy better enrolment ratio than India.

However, only in terms of teacher-student ratio the country outsmarts all as in India for every forty students, there is one teacher.

Source: http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/India_ranks_second_last_in_Quality_Educatio n-nid-50034.html/1/1
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

Re: # 318

A survey of human resource professionals at multinational corporations in India revealed that only one quarter of engineering graduates with a suitable degree could be employed irrespective of demand (Farrell et al., 2005). Another survey of employers shows that only a handful of the 1400 engineering schools in India are recognized as providing world-class education with graduates worthy of
consideration for employment (Globalization of Engineering Services, 2006). These results suggest that engineering degrees from most Indian colleges do not provide signaling value in the engineering labor market. Hence, low quality (in the labor market sense) engineering schooling has come to predominate in the education market. The current situation, with an abundance of low quality engineering schooling, is considered objectionable by many in the Indian polity and is also projected to stifle growth of the Indian economy (Globalization of Engineering Services,
2006).

Source: http://www.mit.edu/~lrv/writing/Private_Engineering_Education_in_India_Market_Fa ilures_and_Regulatory_Solutions.pdf
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

sorry...
though it is immaterial...

Re: # 316
pew...
I don't think all university graduates are conversant with English( though it is not immaterial)...At least my sister and so many others from West Bengal (MA degree with decent knowledge about the subject)...
15%-20% graduates from India are good enough...
From my own experience and campus recruitment, I am engaged in, the fresh Engineering Graguates even in Computer Science are not employable...They lack something, which is required for the industry....For example, you ask people about sorting algorithms, everyone stops at quick sort, though the book and syllabus covers everything...
90% of the people do not know, application of signly linked list and where it should be preferred...what about B+ tree?...basics of file system...basics of memory management...It is not that rosy, the way some people in USA tries to project...but the basic advantage, we had is, we know we are from disadvantaged section and most of the people are too concerned on job related stuff....that makes people in India faster learner (specialy girls)....And you are correct; even with 20% employable graduate, India should be able to challenge the intellectual supremacy of USA....So are Chinese people....but not in near future ( 10/15 years)

Re: # 316
Interesting video. Thanks for sharing it.

I do sincerely hope that India can become a great nation with literate, well-fed, healthy and happy people at the pinnacle of the world civilization. I believe India has great potential.

But it has to start with the basic stuff: roti, bijli, paani and universal primary education. With these basic requirements met and people empowered, the rest can follow.
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

Re: # 315 Riaz

Check out this video on Youtube:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U

Re: # 314
I am glad you say you know your place. It's time you start acknowledging the reality and stop making false claims to hide the poverty, backwards, illiteracy and disease in India. BRIC ir no BRIC, acknowledge the reality, do the necessary work and stop deluding yourself and stop fooling the world.
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

Re: # 313 Riaz:

- "India remains a poor, illiterate, backward, third world nation". I guess most Indian can "live" with these problems as long as they do not get the treatment that Pak is getting from its first world friend and its own strategic depth/forces. You see it is more important to live (as in India) rather than getting killed (as in Pak) because of a suicide bomber or drone attack.

- "The quality of education most Indians receive at tier 2 and 3 schools is far below any acceptable quality. It consists mainly of rote learning, facts memorization and little or no reasoning, as amply evident here on Chowk". You are talking about the situation in Pak, and not India, and it is visible in your google search/copy/paste job as response to my questions.

- "you have got a long way to go my friend before you can compare yourself to the first world, or even the second world". We know our place now and where we want to go. The world has coined the term BRIC countries, and few months back the US president invited Manmohan to discuss with prominant leaders about the world-wide economic revival and recession handling, while Zardari goes every month with begging bowl.

Re: # 310
Comparing Japan with India? The last time I looked Japan is a small island nation with less an an eighth of the population of India, and they have twice as many top schools as India? Is that something to be proud of for you as an Indian?

Look, you've got to face the fact that, in spite of a few bright individuals and some impressive national accomplishments in the last decade, India remains a poor, illiterate, backward, third world nation.

A few Indian schools in top tier can be reasonably compared to world-class schools, but the American investors and businesses have finally learned the hard way that there is huge gap between the few tier one schools and the tier two and three in India. The quality of education most Indians receive at tier 2 and 3 schools is far below any acceptable quality. It consists mainly of rote learning, facts memorization and little or no reasoning, as amply evident here on Chowk.

As a nation, you have got a long way to go my friend before you can compare yourself to the first world, or even the second world! Good Luck.
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

Re: # 307 Riaz says - "Go look at the top 500 universities in the world and you'll see may be one or two from India and a few more from Muslim nations such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan".

I can also give some selective links to prove my point for the Engineering univs:
http://latestuniversityranking.blogspot.com/2009/04/world-university-ran king-2009.html

Two from India, none from the entire muslim world in top 50.

Re: # 306

Riaz:

"...There are tens of thousands of Muslim professors in the Western world and hundreds of thousands of grad students studying in the West..."

You seem to talk as if "Muslim" is a selection and admission criteria. If there are so many, then it only goes to show that a more tolerant system in reality does much better. This substantiates my point about diversified group produces better knowledge, purging of non-Koranic knowledge or any other, does not.

Re: # 307

Riaz:

I did and found the following even more revealing:

1 - 300
Japan : 7
India : 4

Per capita India does not spend on education anywhere near Japan.

These rankings mean nothing for a middle class family seeking education for their kids.

This confirms that India's top Universities follow very strict meritocracy thus the creame does come to the top. Indira Gandhi / Nehru could not get Rajiv Gandhi / Sanjay Gandhi admitted into IIT Delhi. According to Romair, the pay for University professors is much higher in Pakistan.

Pakistan needs to put a strict merit based system, irrespective of Generals son or Chief Justices daugther wanting to get in.

This meritocracy is what helped these schools from India to reach the top.

Re: # 306 Riaz says:

1. "There are tens of thousands of Muslim professors in the Western world and hundreds of thousands of grad students studying in the West" - There are more Indian students/professors than all the muslim numbers put together.

2. "Go look at the top 400 universities in the world and you'll see may be one or two from India and a few more from Muslim nations such as Malaysia" Yes have checked it and the 3 Malaysians are in same range as the 3 Indian univs. At least give better link to prove your point rather it proves my point.

3. I just randomly searched the editorial board of just two magazines. See for yourself the number of muslims and Indian names there.
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=04850393
http://cac m.acm.org/magazines/2009/6
The more you search you will be disappointed.

Re: # 306, 307 Riaz:

Somehow Obama does not believe your logic and explanations. He did not include anyone from your lists to give a wake up call to the American kids, but did include Indians.

Re: # 306

Go look at the top 500 universities in the world and you'll see may be one or two from India and a few more from Muslim nations such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan. Many new world-class universities are now being built in several Muslim nations in Asia and the Middle East, and they are attracting top talent from around the world.

http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/results/2008/overall_ rankings/fullrankings/
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

Re: # 304
You usual tactic is to pick a few tokens/exceptions to prove the rule. Here is what you need to look at:

1. There are tens of thousands of Muslim professors in the Western world and hundreds of thousands of grad students studying in the West.

2. Go look at the top 400 universities in the world and you'll see may be one or two from India and a few more from Muslim nations such as Malaysia.

http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/results/2007 /overall_rankings/top_400_universities/

3. Look at Sciencewatch website to see how citations of papers published by Muslim authors in the Middle East and Pakistan are rising.
http://sciencewatch.com/dr/rs/08sep-rs/

4. Just look at the overall HDI of Muslim nations vs India. Even occupied Palestine ranks at 106, well ahead of India at 132.


Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide