Page 14 - EW-January-2026

Editorial

EDUCATION & SKILLING NEGLECT OUTCOME low-productivity informal work. Their
stagnant wages and precarious liveli-
hoods then show up in global income
he world inequality report been stuck in the 3-4 percent groove. inequality charts. No amount of post-
2026, released on December The country’s 1.1 million government hoc wealth redistribution can compen-
T10 by the Paris-based World schools are characterized by teacher sate for the denial of human resource
Inequality Lab headed by celebrated absenteeism, rote learning, broken in- development during childhood. It’s
economist Thomas Piketty, identifies frastructure and rock bottom student now well established that high-qual-
India among the world’s most inegali- learning outcomes. ity primary-secondary and skills edu-
tarian countries in which one percent According to the Annual Status of cation drives economic growth far
of the population owns 40 percent of Education Report 2024, published more effectively than subsidies — it’s
national wealth, and the top 10 percent by the highly respected, indepen- better to teach people to fish than to
of earners corner 58 percent of national dent Pratham Education Foundation, give them fish. In the neighbouring
income. The annual report has revived which field-tested 649,491 rural stu- People’s Republic of China, which ab
a familiar tirade within Left-liberal dents in the 3-16 age group, 51 percent initio invested in foundational public
academics and media pundits target- of class V children cannot read class II primary-secondary education, the per
ing the handful of globally competitive texts and 69 percent of class V pupils capita income is $13,800 against In-
businessmen as crony capitalists. can’t solve simple division sums. Ne- dia’s $2,132.
In retrospect, it’s clear that the glect of foundational primary-second- At bottom, The World Inequality
greatest failure of the Nehruvian so- ary education has been compounded Report 2026 is an indictment of suc-
cialist development model was neglect by chronic under-investment in skills cessive governments’ failure to invest
of public education, which to this day education and training. Only 5 per- in developing human capital. Regret-
remains inadequately funded and ad- cent of India’s workforce has formal tably, despite a mountain of evidence,
ministered. Almost six decades after skills training qualifications as against there seems to be minimal awareness
the Kothari Commission (1967) rec- China’s 26 percent, USA’s 50 percent within the self-serving establishment
ommended that the Central and state and South Korea’s 96 percent. that quality education is the great-
governments should allocate at least 6 As a result, millions of youth enter est equaliser and passport to upward
percent of GDP to education, national adulthood functionally uneducated socio-economic mobility of the bottom
spending on public education has and unemployable, and condemned to 90 percent.

HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT BLINDSPOT them. This despite universal aware-
ness that the grandiose projects of 13
five-year plans of the pre-liberalisa-
stablished in 1895 as the Engi- erating GDP growth which is headed tion era foundered on the rock of im-
neering & Iron Trades Associa- towards 7 percent in fiscal 2025-26. plementation by an under-educated,
Etion, in 1992 immediately after Perhaps influenced by neighbouring low productivity workforce. If mere
the country threw off the yoke of Sovi- China’s spectacular sustained double throwing money at projects would
et-inspired socialism which had mired digit annual GDP growth rate for over make them bloom, India would be a
the economy in the 3.5 percent per 30 years (1978-2008) driven by heavy wealthy 21st century nation.
year GDP growth rate rut for almost government investment in infrastruc- Yet fractured cognition is typical of
50 years, the association rechristened ture development, CII has proposed CII. A year ago your editors proposed
itself as the Confederation of Indian 12 percent increase in capex by the to Chandrajit Bannerjee, the confed-
Industry (CII). Since then because of Central government and 10 percent eration’s long-tenured Secretary Gen-
its strong support to the landmark by state governments. It also recom- eral, that it would serve the public in-
economic liberalization and deregu- mends according priority to high- terest if he endorsed EducationWorld,
lation initiative of 1991, welcoming multiplier sectors such as transport, a strong advocate of close connect
attitude to foreign investment and energy, logistics, and transition to between academia and industry, in
professional governance, CII has green energy and creation of a Na- one of CII’s routine circulars to mem-
emerged as the most respected voice tional Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP bers. His advice: we should purchase
of Indian industry eclipsing dominant 2.0) fund with a humungous capital a members list from CII and write to
pre-liberalisation industry rep orga- outlay of Rs.150 lakh crore over the each member-company individually.
nizations FICCI (estb.1927) and As- years 2026-32. With such contempt for education
socham (1920). Therefore, when CII These and other recommenda- and human resource development
issues industry reform and national tions are undoubtedly well-consid- — the most vital of all factors of pro-
growth acceleration recommenda- ered, nation-building proposals. Yet duction — pervasive within CII and
tions, government and all informed unsurprisingly CII’s Budget 2026-27 other representative organisations of
and engaged individuals pay heed. proposals don’t contain a single word industry, it’s hardly surprising that
With babus of the Union finance about education and human resource India Inc is a pathetic laggard in the
ministry having already started work development. Surely it’s axiomatic international development race.
on shaping the Union Budget 2026- that capital intensive infrastructure Time for regime change in India’s
27, on December 14, the CII secretariat projects require well-educated engi- most respected industry representa-
issued its recommendations for accel- neers and project managers to execute tive organization.

14 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2026