TURNING A NEW PAGE

The grave deficiencies in India's education system have been addressed by the National Education Policy 2020. To reach global standards, it must be implemented in letter and spirit.

- Kaushik Deka

India boasts a storied legacy of educational excellence, harking back to the ancient institutions of Nalanda and Taxila. Even today, it has one of the largest education ecosystems in the world, encompassing nearly 1.5 million schools, more than 40,000 colleges and over 1,000 universities, which together serve nearly 300 million students.

However, this quantitative advantage has not translated into qualitative success. For instance, while India boasts a Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of 108 per cent for primary education (check the accompanying graphic for why it exceeds 100 per cent), it plummets to around 79 per cent for secondary education. In contrast, China maintains a 100 per cent GER for primary education and 89 per cent for secondary education, reflecting better student retention. India's GER for higher education is even more dismal, languishing at a dismal 27.1 per cent, a figure that is half of China's and pales in comparison to the US's impressive 88 per cent. Exemplary education systems like those in Finland and South Korea achieve nearly 100 per cent GER across all school levels.

If these statistics highlight a substantial gap in educational access, the quality of learning outcomes is even more alarming. The National Achievement Survey (NAS) by the ministry of education revealed that only 45 per cent of fifth-grade students could read at a second-grade level. Similarly, the 2023 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) found that one-fourth of rural students aged 14-18 could not fluently read a second-grade level text in their regional language.