Problems /Opportunities in India's Education Sector

A very important report on the education space got published few weeks ago but it escaped attention amidst other more interesting ones that shook the stock market.

This report was the All India survey on Higher education ( AISHE) - the only comprehensive source of higher education statistics in the country.?For the readers of this article, here is a link : https://aishe.gov.in/aishe/gotoAisheReports

While it was easy to glance at the progress India has made in enrolment % when compared to population growth vs yesteryears and feel good about it, the devil as they say lies in the details. I decided to dig a bit deeper into Gross Enrolment Ratio ( GER). GER for a specific stage of education is simply the % of population that is enrolled in that stage to the gross population in the benchmark age group .

1. The Gross Enrolment Ratio ( GER) for higher education in the age group 18-23 grew to 27.3% vs 25.6% in 2020. Shall we feel happy ? Well, compare it to that in developed countries - USA ( 88), Germany ( 70), UK ( 60) and it begs a question as to why is the progress that slow when one knows anecdotally, that education is well recognized in every socio economic class as the one ticket to upward mobility ?

The answer lies in the low % of 18 year old's being even eligible for higher education. To be eligible for higher education, one requires mandatorily, a 12th grade certificate. However, GER in the secondary school age group was only 57.6% in 2021-22. We have a larger deficit in the prior years. This number ought to be in the 90s if we compare to countries that have achieved rapid development in the past three decades - China ( 40% to 90%) , Korea ( 40% to 95%) . Does this present a problem / opportunity ? Yes, it does.

Problem : The single biggest barrier to increasing GER in higher education is increasing GER in secondary education ! And yes, it is all about affordability and access. Low GERs across developing economies are purely correlated with income. Ref : UNESCO Institute of Statistics :-

• https://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/new-methodology-shows-258-million-children-adolescents-and-youth-are-out-school.pdf

2. The Obsession with a "Graduate Degree"

While times have changed, our mindset hasn't. A good 70% of undergraduates are enrolled in courses to get the proverbial "degree" that doesn't lead to immediate employment as it doesn't impart any skills that go into a real job in an economy. In fact, it is an open secret that most such undergraduates are forced to spend their precious day time attending classes (purely to acquire a degree) that leave them stone-bored while a majority of them also enrol themselves in "professional" or "vocational" courses in the evenings to acquire real skills they enjoy learning and what the world truly needs to keep itself going. They believe that their degree is a mere gate qualifier while real skills to nail that career will come from the additional course or a practical internship.

Govt exams, jobs and even the private sector drive this exclusion mindset by making a "degree from govt recognised university or equivalent" as a mandatory eligibility criteria for entry level jobs and beyond.

Problem : Most students in the 18-23 age group are forced to enrol themselves in "degree" courses that do not lead to immediate employment and have to be necessarily supplemented with "vocational" courses. On the other hand, those enrolled in pure vocational courses ( GER 7.2%) are looked down upon as not having a "degree" and, face a limited career graph despite having started off with the skills. A vicious cycle here.

The above two problems give rise to multiple opportunities for different stakeholders in the education sector across primary, secondary and higher education. I believe that, if these are unlocked, India can leapfrog the slow and conventional pathways and replicate the success seen in China and Korea much faster.

• Opportunity for the Govt of India : Open up K-12 education to digital schools run to standards and, remove the barrier of having to attend physical schools to obtain a 12th grade certificate. Else, we will need to wait until millions can attain the income to afford one. We have shown the world some pioneering ways to do business with #UPI, #Aadhar and #GST. Why are we holding on to past limiting practices in education ? In the year of #G20 Presidency, lets unshackle this.
• Opportunity for the Govt of India and Private Sector : Remove the barrier of having to acquire a " graduate degree" to be shortlisted for job interviews or competitive examinations for jobs. Develop a skill battery for every role and administer that as a checkpoint. Not having a BA ( Political Science) degree for being a great HR Manager. There is politics in the workplace but...you get the drift !
• Opportunity for Startup Founders / Investors? :

a. K-12 for the masses : Until the govt gives a go ahead on awarding 12th grade certification to online schools, can a business not be built around imparting education to the millions who miss out as they cannot afford it or have to work informally to help support their family ? I think it can be built. Parents just need a value proposition that works for them. After all, 600mn smartphones and the cheapest data in the world is their window to everything today apart from education for their kids.?

b. Skilling vs Degrees in higher education : While the obsession with a "degree" will take time to fade away, can scores of tech- enabled education businesses not be built around hard skills ( Logistics, Healthcare, Retail, Housekeeping, Gardening, Customer Service, TV production etc) that the economy needs ? Yes, it will need to be proven to employers that the product is far superior to a degree holder who has "no real skills" and whom they need to invest in for a good 90 days or more, before he/she starts to give back to the organization.

I think a "hybrid" model ie offline + online learning can be built here. Imagine a single regional physical campus serving a much larger number of 'digitally connected' students than it can accommodate purely physically.

Leaving those enrolled in Engineering, Medicine and Commerce as they may be immediately "employable" ( which is not entirely true but accounting for 32%), there seems to be a market of 20 million students each year that would be willing to spend $500 per course to get employed / self-employed at a min of $250 pm ? GDP per capita stands at $ 2300 pa just so we aren't being unrealistic here.