Please check the above link. It talks about private schools in India!

“This officially makes AP, the state with the most number of engineering seats, a staggering 97,000. The state surpassed the previous leader in this department -Tamil Nadu which has 248 engineering colleges.

The philosophy of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for sanctioning so many colleges is simple. If you give more colleges, the competition will ensure that only the fittest will survive and that in turn will ensure of quality education. And so, the AICTE will continue to sanction more colleges- and at any point of time in the year. If this causes mushrooming of colleges that does not matter because only the best will remain open in the end, a senior official from AP State Council of Higher Education said.”

So it is beginning to happen in some isolated pockets …

Do you have anything on how to get this done ? Considering that the people who need to make the change (lawmakers) are the ones with the vested interests to not have it changed. It is all well and good to rave and rant, but let us look at solutions (which is obvious), and how to get there.

I have never seen even one suggestion so far, from anyone, on what kind of incentives the MPs have to make the change. As economists and libertarians (and assorted labels), you should know that everyone is motivated by incentives. What incentives do the MPs have to make this happen ? None, nada, zilch, zero.

The MPs have seen the sectors which got liberalised, and they saw that they lost all control, all the money was going into someone else’s pockets, while they, the lawmakers with all the power, get a piddling salary that cannot even pay for their mobile bills, let alone their election campaigns.

If we are talking of liberalising sectors, let us think about how to liberalise the electoral system, and find a way to provide the right incentives to the MPs to make the right decisions. And, for crying out loud, let us think and speak of ways to get to a solution, rather than just continue to rant about the problem and the end goal, which things, by today, are known to even 5-year olds.

Out of sarcasm now. The system isn’t dead, my friend. It’s a vampire. It lures, lulls and sucks least worried about the cross behind the locked doors in a few ivory towers as long as there are many more to feed on. Unfortunately, there is no recognized crisis like the one in the early 90s that forced liberalisation. I agree with the diagnosis, but cannot see the cure. The question is: who will bell the bureaucrat?

That was amazing. The education sector needs to be released from the clutches of bueracrats. I was studying the results of deregulation in the US and UK during Reagan and Thatcher and wondering why India didnt have the smarts to do something like that. Competition will ensure that the best survive and I’m sure there are a lot of corporate biggies who will invest heavily into it. The sunrise industry in India is education and not infotech as many believe. It is ironical and a travesty that the land of Saraswati should have so many illiterate people who cannot comprehend the profundity of education while they worship her idol.

Jyoti

Some notes:
- Highly experienced Mr Arjun Singh from HRD thinks Reservations is the way forward to bring education to the masses.
- The Social Welfare ministry decides Private Sector must recruit based on caste.
- The education departments in Karnataka decided to close down several hundred schools because they flouted a local language policy.
- The MPs do not want foreign univs. to come to india – the real reason is they think they will lose control. See how they are able to push IIMs every which way they want.

The economy is poised to grow. The people want to progress. The governance HAS NOT kept pace, REFUSES to do so.

Infact the MPs are busy making amendments to foreigners act to allow Bangladeshi migrants to settle in North East, so that they can be converted to Vote Banks. And thank god supreme court struck it down for now.

If your intention is to describe the problem then you have done a beautiful job. I agree that the path to growth begins with education. But if you are proposing a solution then I would like to give my 2 cents:

In order to attract quality educators from abroad (reverse brain-drain), India needs to create a stable research environment. Where is the money for research going to come from? You may say that private investors can provide it. But there should be a reason for those private investors to invest their money. After all a capitalist system is built upon the principle of maximizing utility or profit in this case. That again adds the burden on the economic system. Kids with deep pockets would then be able to squeeze their way into these institutions but majority would still watch the show from the “outsides”. I don’t mind that as long as we cherish equal opportunity not equal outcomes. Of course that would mean more “Aptech” and “NIIT” type of institutes instead of something like a UC Berkley. Secondly, professors like any educated human being look at other factors besides research, for example political and social environment which in itself is built upon a stable education system. Also, if new institutions are to germinate they should be geographically available to the common man. That means less developed states as well. Are the professors willing to travel to any city other than the metros or Pune, Hydrabad or Bangalore for that matter? Unlike New Zealand, India does not enjoy the same freedom. Lastly, I feel that it is imperative to realize the importance of elementary education in developing a child. India has a great elementary education system but again unfortunately the emphasis has always been on Math and Science. Unlike the west where students are encouraged to participate, most Indian schools just shove the course work in a rather subjective manner. I would like to see more emphasis on critical thinking as a part of social science. Unless students are taught to question and debate they will remain slaves to the system when they grow up. And that’s been the irony of our system.

A better test is to give them a pen and paper (or a chalk and a blackboard) and let them think out the steps systematically and get comfortable.

However, I do agree that many Indian students have not learnt how to think. In the absence of a large pool of potential PhD students, it is up to the advisor to teach them how to think. At age 21, the student is still young enough to learn the basic process.

Agreed with all the points that you’ve raised. To unshackle the other areas in education, however, I believe that more than anything, the government should pamper the young people who want to join back in. Without attracting fresh talent as teachers and researchers in IITs and places like the IISc, it is not possible to merely turn the thing around on its head.

Now who will bell the cat? The reason the govt does not go out of anything is that there are massive incentives for everyone in the government: babus, MPs, judges to stay there. Right now it is not even possible to democratically change the character of the government, as that will be a change in the “essential structure” and is illegal, both according to 44th amendment (?) as well as a supreme court decision (I don’t remember which one).