Page 62 - EW November 2023

Cover Story

benchmarked undergrad colleges and India’s higher education institutions
universities is intense. For instance, are middle class. Neither they nor the
it’s well-known that the IIT-JEE establishment acknowledge the iniq-
(joint entrance exam) is the toughest uity of well-off middle-class students
test worldwide with only 2 percent of availing highly subsidized undergrad
the 1.1 million aspirants who write education and taking off for greener
the exam admitted into the heavily- pastures abroad.
subsidised IITs. Indeed so intense is All suggestions to introduce a regi-
the competition for admission into the men requiring IIT and top-ranked
IITs and 56 Central government uni- university students to repay the actual
versities and their affiliated colleges, cost of their education have no takers,
that this phenomenon has spawned presumably because almost all politi-
an entire Rs.10,000 crore private tu- cians and bureaucrats — including
torials industry that drills and skills several former presidents and prime
school-leavers and graduates to top ministers — have children parked
the IIT-JEE, CAT (for IIMs), Civil Ser- abroad, a reflection of the faith they
vices Exam and NEET (for admission repose in their own bankrupt develop-
into much-too-few medical colleges). Visvanathan: boredom malaise ment policies and initiatives. Indeed
T HE OUTCOME OF A lop- the academy several decades ago have every second member boasts of one or
in the country’s upscale leisure clubs,
almost completely disappeared. There
other progeny residing abroad.
sided higher education
Curiously instead of lamenting this
system defined by a few
high-quality institutions is too much obsession with success. uninterrupted capital flight and brain
Our great institutions such as the
floating in a sea of mediocrity is that Indian Institute of Science and IITs drain, the new spin given to this phe-
over 100,000 graduates and increas- are producing standard Ph Ds. Indi- nomenon is that it should be viewed
ingly school-leavers, migrate to uni- an science is dying of boredom. The as a positive development. “According
versities abroad every year. To the ex- same is true of Indian industry. It is to the World Bank almost 36 percent
tent that India has become the world’s becoming increasingly bureaucratic of the country’s remittance flows are
largest exporter of students to univer- and risk-averse. There is little aware- sourced from high-skilled migrants in
sities in the US, UK, Australia, Canada ness within corporate India that the the US, UK and Singapore. It’s the tech
and several other countries worldwide world’s greatest corporates — Google, industry that’s absorbing a significant
including China. Currently the num- Microsoft, Metaverse — were incu- proportion of them, thereby creating
ber of Indian students in higher edu- bated through play in tiny garages,” a bridge between India and the world
cation institutions abroad aggregates says Visvanathan. in the most dynamic area of economic
an estimated 1.3 million and their an- Unsurprisingly the majority of activity. Its positive spin-offs include
nual expenditure abroad (expected to Indian students who venture abroad investment and transfer of skills back
hit Rs.6.7 lakh crore equivalent) by for postgraduate study in foreign uni- to India through collaborations. The
far exceeds the Union government’s versities — whose undergrad educa- human bridge between India and
budgeted annual outlay for education tion in India is highly subsidized by OECD, which is a proxy for the de-
(Rs.1.12 lakh crore). the citizenry — don’t return, and stay veloped world, is an underestimated
Well-known social scientist Shiv on to generate tax revenue, create source of economic and intellectual
Visvanathan, currently professor employment and knowledge for the dynamism,” intones a lead editorial
and Executive Director, Centre for benefit of their adopted countries. in the Times of India (October 25).
Study of Knowledge Systems at the In this connection it’s pertinent to This argument is typical of post-
new genre O.P. Jindal Global Uni- note that the majority of students in independence India’s self-centred
versity in Delhi NCR, attributes the middle class which prefers to serve in
mediocratisation of Indian higher The majority of Indian heaven rather than clean up the mess
education to a loss of appetite for re- created by India’s socialist misadven-
search and innovation and content- students whose undergrad ture. The percentage of earnings that
ment with “competence replication” education in India is highly an emigrant is likely to send back as
within the academy which extends to remittance to the mother country is
India Inc as well. “Playfulness, story- subsidised don't return and inevitably a fraction of his post-tax
telling, eccentricity and risk-taking work for the benefit of their income and would barely cover the
capability that results in great scien- adopted countries cost of his/her subsidized education
tific innovations which existed within in India. Reversing the knowledge and

62 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2023