What’s missing from the recent reforms in Indian education system?

From my article in Kellogg India Business Conference 2009, India@Kellogg publication

As per the 11th Five year plan, by 2012, India will have 8 new IITs, 7 new IIMs, and 14 Central universities . It sounds like a lot, but in fact it merely represents the tip of the huge iceberg that is the Indian education system. As per the NCAER report , India had 39 million graduates and 9.3 million post-graduates: these are impressive numbers indeed! However, on taking a closer look at our education system, a different picture appears.

A recent research report placed India among the world’s least innovative nations . With so many premier institutes churning out thousands of highly qualified graduates every year, one would question the legitimacy of this report. But is there a connection between innovation and number of graduates that we produce? Looking at the last fifteen years, the Indian education system has been relentlessly focused on meeting the needs of burgeoning service sector. This has created a void in the overall system and there is a dearth of good quality scientists, journalists, and teachers who are equally important if not more for the well-rounded development of the country. Part of this has to be blamed to the myopic vision of the society. Any interest in basic sciences, art, music and literature is viewed with skeptical eyes and is discouraged due to lack of job opportunities.

When Mr. Anil Agarwal, the owner of Vedanta Resources Corporation donated one billion USD towards building a world class multi-disciplinary university dedicated to preparing talented leadership in arts, sciences, economic, political, educational, social, artistic, and professional fields; the initiative did not get the attention it deserved. Many people wrote it off as too ambitious or even irrelevant to meet the educational needs of our younger generation. I believe that Vedanta University is a great step towards providing quality education in non-technical educational fields and other projects like this should be encouraged.

However, one such institute is like a drop in the ocean. Fact remains that India truly lacks institutes focused on basic sciences, arts, and political science, a situation that cannot be improved unless the Indian government commits substantial resources towards developing such institutes. One of the main reasons why countries like the US are way ahead of India in innovation and technology is the presence of several universities that not only offer excellent engineering and business programs but also have outstanding arts and political science course offerings, and state-of-the-art research facilities. These institutes have created an entire ecosystem which inherently drives creativity and innovation.

To conclude, I would recommend a three pronged approach to strengthen the Indian education system:

• Develop hybrid programs in universities with cross pollination between technical and non-technical courses – this will encourage students to explore non-conventional options and help change the mindset of common people.
• Develop well-rounded world class universities instead of focusing on only one discipline; this will eventually create a symbiotic ecosystem of faculty, student, alumni and corporations.
• Develop incubation centers within universities to foster entrepreneurship and encourage students to form diverse teams - this will foster innovation and create jobs.