Skip to main content

Is the Time Now for an "Indian Education Gold Rush"?

India has a large educational system for its billion plus population.  As of 2007/08, India has more than 400 universities and 21,000 higher education institutions.  These institutions currently can only enroll 7-8% of the college-age students in the country, which results in one of the lowest Gross-Enrollment-Ratio (GER) among developed and BRIC countries.  India currently has 460 million in the ages of 6-24 years eligible to study at educational institutions, while only 63% are enrolled in educational institutions and even a lower percentage goes on to graduate college. 

According to a report released by Union HRD ministry, India’s expenditure on higher education will grow nearly 13% annually in the next 10 years driven by the private sector.  As of 2010, current estimates of higher education spend in India is at Rs. 46,200 crore ($10 billion) and it is projected to grow to Rs. 150,000 crore ($32 billion) in the next 10 years.  The average household spending on education has risen from 1.46% of annual income in 1981 to 7.55% in 2010, while nearly 55% of Indian middle-class households have started saving for higher education of their children.  All these macro-economic factors point to a future customer who has an increasing willingness to invest in education. 

Since 1950, the number of universities in India has increased from just 28 to 504, while the Union HRD ministry estimates that India would need another 800 universities to cater to the growing demand.  Also, the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) report recommends that the Indian higher education system needs to have around 1,500 universities to be able to achieve the target GER of 15% by 2015.  India can only achieve its targeted 10% annual GDP growth if the country can create a sufficient pool of high quality educated people with employable skills for various sectors of the economy.  Although the Indian government has allocated $100 billion in the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017), public institutions alone cannot create the capacity required to educate India’s huge population.  Massive private sector involvement and investment is required to expand educational infrastructure and provide employable skills to sustain economic growth.

India’s education sector offers significant opportunities for private players as seen by the several trends working in its favor:
  • Several studies have recognized that public institutions alone cannot provide the capacity to educate, and private participation on a large scale is required
  • Favorable Indian demographic (547 million people under 20 years of age) coupled with increasing educational awareness will drive more people to seek quality education
  • High growth rate in higher education spending by households
  • Quality of education is increasingly becoming a key criterion for students
  • Government is keen on providing opportunities for NRI private players to participate in the education sector to accomplish the massive task of educating India

“An educated population is the nation’s greatest asset.” – Union HRD Minister

Signing off.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Intersection of Burqa and Democracy

Are Muslim women allowed to wear burqa and vote ? Says No, the Supreme Court of India in a significant landmark judgement on Jan 23, 2010. With the issues firmly settled, now what? I am glad that Supreme Court of India did answer they way it did. I think it is a silent victory for progressive Muslims, who for long have been dominated by the clerics of Islam. The Courts ruled from the point of view of operational effectiveness, I look at it from the fact that we need to call out those narrow religion based arguments. Do respect your religion and traditions, but don't have a blind eye towards progress. My view is that Muslims in India have long suffered because of sticking too much to their traditions and religion. Clearly, it does not apply to ALL Muslims because we have seen the likes of Dr. Kalam, Azhar, Sania Mirza etc emerge, but there isn't enough momentum to lift many from the depths of tradition and insularity. One thing is for sure that Indian Muslims do tend to av...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is European Union our Language Game-Changer?

Is India ready for One Language for its Masses?   That's a good question we Indians have been searching more than 50-years for an answer!  The One Language issue was so controversial during our Republic’s formative years, and it continues to be troublesome 62-years after independence.  Although the issue seems to have simmered, it has the potential to rear its head if our leaders are not careful.  History's Lessons There are those who argue that Hindi should be the unifying language, while some others claim English should be our link language.  Before we move on to moderate that debate, here’s a brief history lesson.  At the time of Independence, with the Hindi speaking people in majority, it was decided that Hindi would replace English as the pseudo-National language by 1965.  Important to note is that this victory for Hindi over the South-supported-English was accomplished by one extra vote in its favor.  Clearly, Hindi was not backed by majo...
Post a Comment
Read more