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I agree when one says education in India is not totally upto its mark, but India was once the centre of the oldest and the most famous University - Taxila - during the time of Chanakya around 350BC.

Compared to the education system 10-15-30 years ago, the current system is way way way better. Moreso now, because schools and colleges are becoming more autonomous and independent. Take the colleges in Bangalore or Delhi, for instance. With a new ruling, the colleges are one by one, getting away from the spider's web that prevented them from making independent decisions for their institutions.

Like their counterparts in the US, Indian Colleges do have a system for elective courses, the opportunity for Indian students to intern at companies; And from what I see annd know, students in India are much more aggressive and determined than those in the States.

Let me end with this note (for I can ramble on and on forever)- Rather than follow a "leader", be one!

Good!! A thought provoking article to be looked upon by many,
well lets build the so called "DEVELOPED INDIA" for which we all have to put in our efforts.

Every one who is born in INDIA, studied in this land using it's resources owes to his/her motherland something in return.

I am sure that in few years to come we will have world class institutions in all walks of life with being from a DEVELOPED INDIA be it in what ever field of choice.

Hi Eera & Hemu,
The problem before India is 'How to stimulate the education system so that one complete generation of Indians is educated?' Atanu has been writing on the same in Education category http://www.deeshaa.org/category/education/ which is a must read for all the folks who are interested in India’s education.

There is no issue with the reach of education in India now-a-days. The percentage of passouts(after one or multiple attemts) from higheschools has gone upto 50% compared to 30 from about 10-15 years ago.

I would like to add that the notion of educated class to ditch India has something to do with arcane and ill-conceived equal opportunity measures aka reservations. This is one of the primary reasons for many educated people to migrate out until at least year 2000. Due to late renaissance in IT related and other investments in India, there is sure talk of lesser loss of intellectual capital.

Hi Kishore,

Increase in percentage of high school graduates does not tell any thing about the number of children that do not have access to education. If you consider increasing population numbers and the relative number of children who do not have access to education, those numbers are sure staggering. Indian political and professional leaders must concentrate on providing education to ALL of these kids with in the next 5 to 10 years.

The number of Indians who are employed in IT industry is really negligible and IT jobs are accessible only to college graduates. The rest of the population hardly has any jobs. Last time when I went to India, I argued the same way with a guy who was studying Law, currently a probationary Judge of AP high court, and he dismissed my argument saying that with out the ‘products’ industry it is unlikely that Indian youth will enjoy a decent employment. When you look at the staggering unemployment levels, I realized that it is completely true. If India’s education and employment situation is looking so rosy, then why do you think central govt. under the aegis of Dr. Manmohan Singh is implementing Common Minimum Program (http://pmindia.nic.in/cmp.htm).

By the way, would you mind elaborating about the 'arcane and ill-conceived equal opportunity measures aka reservations'. I would like to know what you are trying to say.

I am not saying things are rosy. But I could see things improving from a fundamental education point of view. CMP is good. Even advanced countries like US need 'No child left behind' programs to get people moving in the right direction.

What are you talking about children not having access to basic education. Are you just reading stuff from papers. Please visit some rural areas in India during your next visit. There is decent opportunity for every one to send their folk until end of high school(and I am talking about public schools here). And these public schools do charge some of the minimal fees in the world to get things going.

Even if you provide means to get education, almost all of kids will not go to school. That is the reality with India. This can be attributed aspects like child labor.

BTW here is what I meant by 'bad ass equal opportunity AKA reservations'. It is good to have reservations for the needed and the desirable. But I have seen folks who are really well off going to take advantage of this opportunity(example: A leading poet who made enough money had all his kids claim reservation to get frothy public service jobs). But those from forward castes with lesser means are going nowhere. What kind of justice is this? That is one of reasons people used to run away from the so called country called 'India'.

Well,

Fortunately or unfortunately most of my life I lived in rural areas, meaning real villages. Every time, I go to India, my dad makes sure that I travel in the third class bogies in the train (You should try next time), in red busses on foot to our villages just to make sure that I don't miss any developments that happened during the time I was absent. I would be glad if you can take time to do something like that when you go to India, so that you can have the first hand experience.

Your comment on reservations has certainly motivated me to do a separate post, which will come soon. To be frank, I did not think that you would blame the reservations for the brain drain, I really expected much better from you.

Well, i would say sorry if you have taken the 'reservations' topic to heart. I did say that it for sure is one of the factors. Others being better opportunities in other countries(this also applies to folks who are born in US/Israel presently working in India for the multinational firms).

Hay, hay... I am on the same boat with respect to rural thingi. From Razole, East Godavari. I have graduated from ZP boys high school in Razole(our passout rate was 15% at that time, it sure improved over the years). I have even used passenger trains. Passenger buses are the norm for travel in Konaseema, since there is no train connectivity there.

BTW you haven't commented about any observations specific to zist of the topic: kids getting enough school opportunities...

Last but not least; reservations suck. There is a saying in US: You are screwd some what if you are a white american male from non-shady neighbourhoods(for cases like MBA admissions). Similarly we can say about India: You are screwed if you are a poor forward caste male(since now-a-days there are reservations for gals)

The last thing I want is a sorry; I really like to have a healthy open minded discussion instead. Let’s see, how much influence reservations had in the current consistent economic growth and employment opportunities in India; Let me guess, its ZERO. The current growth is happening due to liberal economic policies and it is powered by people from all sections of society, mostly forward caste ones. I hope you are getting the hint by now. Only if all those 'Forward Caste Leaders' who have been ruling India for the last almost 58 years acted like forward thinkers instead of becoming corrupt and devouring billions of rupees, the 'poor forward caste' male along with the rest of the poor of India would be having better opportunities by now. Let me be clear, I am not making an argument either supporting or condemning 'reservations' here, I am just trying to smoke out the real culprits responsible for the plight of the 'poor forward caste' student; they are none other than the numerous 'forward caste leaders' who lack a real forward thinking. Just to give a simple illustration, my uncle became a panchayat president in the place of the previously forward caste Khandan ruled village, by the blessing of the reservation. The first advice he got from The Khandan: ‘You can have all the money that gets allocated to panchayat, we will not even interfere. But, you must not spend it on village developmental activities.’ Well, ultimately he, a non-forward caste president spending money on the development activities of the village, got killed brutally for not heeding the advice. Numerous such examples can be seen everywhere if you try to look. At the same time I have also seen a forward caste bank manager, who did everything he can to promote micro credit programs to help poor (includes both forward and non-forward caste poor), to have a lively hood, to come out of their poverty and to provide education to their kids. He keeps getting transferred around frequently to stop this development from happening. But, people like that bank managers are very limited; I have complete admiration for such individuals. I can go on and on with several personal and societal examples like this that have been crippling India’s poor.

However, I really think that as educated intelligent individuals we need to recognize that the malice in the society must be fought by helping people come out of poverty and do something about it, instead of us getting drawn into self-defeating loose arguments.

I am not disagreeing with you about your observations on reservations. Each individual will have different spin(or perspective) on a sensitive issue like this. At the end of the day, what matters is progress.

BTW there is no way the corrupt nature of politics will go way. It will take time. One big example is US itself. only in our previous generation US became open minded to the core. Minorities started getting treated the right way, after what 1950s. So, we need time for aspects like corruption to decrease.

Have you ever thought of your personal observation (regards to your uncle) has something to do with geography. Something like you mentioned to happen in our generation in coastal andhra(specifically in godavari district)is remote.

I think i owe you a lunch for taking lot of time discussing off beat topics of this nature.

All I am trying to do is to make one understand that there are other fundamental problems like rampant corruption, red tape, nepotism, deceit, greed, intolerance etc. in the society which are the real root causes for the existing problems of ALL the poor in the society. Educated Indians must do something to get rid of such cancerous things, instead of getting carried away by the politically motivated issues.

By the way, I would love to join you for lunch any day.

Ramdhan this is the age old question.
What can Indians do about it? India is like an elephant it will move slowly as it has to carry everything together and move.

Kripal,

How lame it is to think that we cannot do anything. Imagine if Late Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao along with his accomplice and current Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh did not embark on the path of liberalization we would still be swirling in the black hole of Nehruvian socialism. So, basically we have a visible example before us that India and Indians have the ability to move like a tiger. Can't we take that example as an inspiration?