EDUCATION MATRIX OF INDIA

PREAMBLE

1. Rs 45,000 cr** per year is repatriated out of India, for nearly 3,00,000 Indian students studying abroad. [**estimated figures]. These funds are enough to build 20 IIT’s or 50 IIM’s per year!

2. Rs 3,000 cr is the yearly budget of the University Grants Commission, UGC, in New Delhi.

3. Rs 3,000 cr** per year is spent by nearly 6,00,000 students trying to arrange and learn for the entrance examinations into the 7 IIT's and the first 20 top IIM's and Management Institutes. Selection rate is hardly 1.2% against nearly 10% to 15% in Ivy league colleges such as MIT, Harvard, Cambridge & Stanford

4. Rs 50,000 cr** is spent by Indians, every year, for import of 8,00,000 kgs. of Gold . So there is enough money to be spent by Indians for good things.

5. Higher education is subsidized, while we still have 350 million as per GOI and 650 millions as per UNDP who are illiterate! Even after 57 years of Independence we have still not taken the first step in the path of education. The present definition of an 'illiterate', as defined in India, needs to be changed.

6. Why should we pay only $45, per month, as fees in the IIT's and depend on hand outs of the GOI, when our youth must pay $ 2000 to $3000 per month fees, in equivalent Institutions in the USA and UK?

7. The drop out rate between the Class 1st to the Class 10+2, is nearly 94% in India. The present system is designed ONLY for the balance 6%. How are the balance 94%, who drop out, supposed to manage?

8. The present system puts in too much emphasis for the development of IQ [only 5% of the brain is used] and not enough into SQ and EQ

9. We do not seem to be preparing our youth to face the International challenge of an open economy, which will happen in the next 2 to 3 years. One can find engineers, accountants, lawyers, MBA's, graduates in Science, Commerce and Arts - but no skilled manpower in the 2000 different fields required by enterprises, to run the Nation! People are available. Most of them are not employable in India or outside!

10. Education & Training is a life-long process and not meant to stop at an age of 20 or 22! In the progressive countries of the world, nearly 1 month per year is reserved for training/re-training and reeducation, right up to an age of 55 or 60. The advantages of Training have still not been understood by the people of India.

11. Education in India still considered as a social cause only. Fortunately, the Politicians have recognized Education as a good and lucrative business, as many of them are running a large number of Engineering & Medical colleges!

12. The problems of poor quality in education & training will not go away by controls, but by decontrols. High Capitation fees are there because of the number of seats available are much less than the actual demand. Market forces, supply and demand should balance the existence and growth of Educational Institutions.

13. Paradigm shift in thinking & new methods for funding of educational infrastructure are not being considered. We need 10-15-20-year-low-interest-tax-freeinfrastructure-bonds for funding of education.

14. In a developing nation like India, the higher you study, the more the subsidy you get from the state. Why should B. Com., B.Sc. B.A., etc be subsidized?

Recommendations

1. Higher education should be 'de-licensed'. AICTE should become a 'enabler' rather than a 'controller'. License Raj to go, it is not serving any purpose, only a reason to stifle the growth of all types of higher education in India, and discourage excellence. Quality is achieved only with freedom.

2. All subsidies for higher education must be removed. These funds should be recycled for Primary, Secondary, High School, ESD & VET only.

3. Both ESD and VET promote higher levels of SQ and EQ. Many students, who do higher studies, as

they work, understand how the world works. Here kids are doing higher studies without understanding the environment, maturity is not enough. Some times quality is poor, so is the confidence levels.

4. Foreign languages, besides English, is a must. Eg., German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, etc...

5. Work experience is a must, not only summer training. At least +2 years, after college for MBA,

and another +2 years after Masters, for a PhD.

6. Teachers and Professors must 'shunt' between college and enterprise. One cannot stay put only in

one place. Stagnation leads to obsolescence!

7. Funding of all types of higher education needs a paradigm shift of thinking. Privatize maximum. Allow for tax incentives in educational infrastructure for the next 20 years. Best teachers must be attracted to work in Educational Institutions. Reservation of up to 35% of the seats can be kept for Merit-cum-Poverty.

8. Education is BIG Business any where in the world. About, $2500 billion** per year, nearly 5 times the size of IT and software. If we can pick up only 10% of the world business, it will increase our GDP by 50%! This can be achieved in the next 10 to 15 years. Why should we allow Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia or Dubai to take away our business & jobs?

9. India is ideally suited to become a HUB for education for Asian countries. Australia earns nearly $18 billion** per year on foreign students.[this is nearly 40% of the entire export of India and nearly 200% of India's software exports]

10. Quality will improve only by deregulation and NOT by regulation and controls. Let there be a 100 IIT's or a 100 IIM's. The good institutions do not have to advertise and promise placements etc. The market knows best. Interaction between Institutions and Industry-Enterprise must be magnified 10 fold.

11. Indian Institutions must bench mark with the rest of the world and NOT only with each other, in India! Foreign accreditation is required to improve 'Governance'. ISO 9000 is not enough. Look at 6 sigma, etc.

12. And lastly, Think Global but Act local! Which means, that we should get all the Best Ideas from all over the World and implement them to Indian conditions, for achieving the Best Results for the people of India.