Elementary and Higher Education in India

1. Elementary and Higher Education in India Arvind Panagariya Columbia University Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh November 2, 2008

2. Introduction • Elementary Education • Low Literacy Rates • Rampant teacher absenteeism • Low reading, writing and Math scores • Higher Education • A highly centralized system • No genuine entry to private universities • Low gross enrolment ratios • Paradox of brilliant graduates and a dysfunctional education system

3. School Enrolments (%) in Rural India “Not in School” includes drop-outs and those never having gone to school Source: Pratham: ASER 2008

4. School Enrolment: Young Children Source: Pratham: ASER 2008

5. Learning Level: Reading Source: Pratham: ASER 2008

6. Arithmetic Level Source: Pratham: ASER 2008

7. Policy • Directive Principles: free compulsory education for all children until they completed the age of 14 years by 1960 • Heavy emphasis on the expansion of the state run (government) schools (reasonable policy at the time) • National policy statements in 1968 and 1986 (revised in 1992) still left India some distance away from universal primary and middle education • 2001: The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) or National Movement for Universal (Elementary) Education • 2002: 86th constitutional amendment: Right to education elevated to a fundamental right • Implementing legislation abandoned in 2005 due to lack of resources but is being currently resuscitated

8. Poor Achievement Levels: What are the Solutions? • Bring down teacher absenteeism • Hiring and firing power to local levels • Better monitoring: Cameras in the classrooms? • Improve the quality of instruction • No silver bullet: Increased inputs no guarantee • Increased role of para-teachers • Increased role of private schools (vouchers to the bottom 30%)

9. Private Schools: Rural Areas • Muralidharan and Kremer (2006): Systematic comparison of government and private schools for the year 2003 in RURAL India. • Private school teachers are 2 to 8 percentage points less likely to be absent than govt. school teachers • They are 6 to 9 percentage points more likely to be teaching than government school teachers • Higher test scores on the average • Teacher salaries: 1/10th to 1/5th of govt salaries • A key factor: . Out of 3000 government schools surveyed, only one head teacher dismissed a teacher for repeated absences. In the private sector, they found 35 such cases in just 600 schools surveyed • private schools emerge in villages where teacher absenteeism is higher in government schools rather than in richer areas

10. Private Schools: Urban Areas • Tooley and Dixon (undated): Census of primary and secondary schools in Shahdara, a poor area in Delhi, in 2004-05 • 275 schools in total: 27% public; 7% aided private; 38% unaided and recognized; and 28% unaided and unrecognized. 66% entirely private • Teacher absenteeism: 38% in public, 70% in pvt. • on average, unrecognized private school students score higher than public ones (72% higher in mathematics, 83% higher in Hindi and 246% higher in English) • Salaries: 1/7th in unrecognized schools • Teachers in unrecognized schools more satisfied in terms of salaries, holidays or social standing.

11. Higher Education: Pre-Independence History • 1854: Sir Charles Wood's Dispatch known as the “Magna Carta of English Education in India” recommended a proper scheme of education from primary to university levels • 1857: Universities of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras were set up • 1925: Inter-University Board was created to promote cooperation among the universities • 1945: University Grants Committee was formed to oversee the activities of three central universities (Delhi, Aligarh and Banaras). Authority extended to all universities in 1947

12. Post-Independence Developments • 1948: The University Education Commission with Radhakrishnana as Chairman. It recommended reconstituting the University Grants Committee as the University Grants Commission along the lines of the UGC in U.K. • 1953: UGC formally inaugurated • 1956: UGC Act turning the UGC into a statutory body with wide powers over India’s higher education system

13. A highly Centralize System with the UGC at the Apex • UGC and 14 statutory central professional councils tightly control the entire system. Corruption is rampant at all levels. As examples, two most powerful councils are • All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) (since 1987) • Medical Council of India (MCI) (since 1956) • UGC controls the entire university system including curriculums, degrees, fees, faculty qualifications and approval to new universities.

14. Number of Colleges, Universities and Students

15. The Tight Grip of Professional Councils • AICTE controls virtually all aspects of technical education in Engineering and Technology, MCA & MBA, Pharmacy, Architecture & Applied Arts, Hotel Management & Catering Technology. E.g., • It lays down norms and standards for courses, curricula, physical and instructional facilities, staff pattern, staff qualifications, quality instruction, assessment and examinations • It grants approval for starting new technical institutions and for the introduction of new course or programs • MCI: All aspects of medical education

16. Avenues to Setting up Degree Awarding Institutions in India • Central universities established by Acts of Parliament and State universities established by Acts of State Legislative Assemblies; • Private universities also require central or state legislation; • Institutions “deemed” to be universities by the UGC and, thus, given university status under the UGC Act 1956; and • Degree-awarding institutions of national importance, such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), established by Acts of Parliament and outside the purview of the UGC.

17. Private Universities: A Sham There are only two avenues • UGC must deem them as universities or • They must be created through a central or state legislation • The UGC approval remains essential in either case • Considerable interference by the UGC with admissions, fees, curriculums, degrees awarded and faculty salaries

18. Private Colleges: Hostage to the UGC • Must be affiliated to a central or state university (private and deemed universities are unitary and not allowed to affiliate colleges) • No effective freedom to create a brand name since degrees must be issued in the name of the affiliating university • Medical colleges: MCI, a highly corrupt body, exercises very tight control and threatens closure on the flimsiest grounds. Unlike engineering colleges, medical colleges have expanded very slowly except in a handful of the states

19. Low Enrolment Ratio and Low Value Added in the Classroom • Gross enrolment ratio in higher education as reported by Unesco rose from 10 in 2000 to 12 in 2004 in India • By comparison, this ratio rose from 6 percent in 1999 to 13 percent in 2002 and 19 percent in 2004 in China • Rampant teacher and student absenteeism • Teachers have zero incentive to teach or do research (Once “tenured,” cannot be fired. No gain from superior performance except the gratitude of some sincere students.)

20. So How Come the System Still produces so Many Brilliant Graduates • With a preponderantly young population of more than a billion individuals and a longstanding tradition that places the highest value on intellectual pursuits, India has a large number of young men and women interested in education • Thanks to the entry of a large number of excellent private schools in the urban areas and a well-functioning secondary-school system, many students are well prepared for higher education when they reach college age. • Universities and colleges do an adequate job of quality control. The centralized examinations are able to sort out the very best 10% or so from the rest credibly. Good performance in the examinations, thus, has a signaling value in the market place. This provides brighter students the incentive to master the curriculum and even spend large sums of money on coaching institutes if required. • But this still leaves a vast number of poorly qualified students.

21. What Must be Done? • Decentralize (abolish the UGC—U.K. did years ago!!) • Unshackle private universities and colleges • Augment financial resources of the universities • Knock down the barriers to foreign scholars

22. The Case for Decentralization • Even UGC cannot administer 400 plus universities and 20,000 plus colleges • An average of 50 affiliated colleges per university is also far too many • Centralization stifles creativity and initiative at the local level • It also destroys the incentive to compete (same salary etc.). Genuine autonomy will require freedom to set the salary by universities and colleges. • Pre-Independence India was decentralized; In mid 1980s, China decentralized, too.

23. Universities Colleges Students (million) 2000-01 2005-06 2000-01 2005-06 2000-01 2005-06 Total 276 348 12296 17625 8.4 10.5 Composition Percent Government 88.8 77.0 33.3 24.0 41.0 (3.4 m) 35.8 (3.8 m) Private Aided 3.6 2.9 40.6 32.6 37.3 (3.1 m) 33.5 (3.5 m) Private Unaided 7.6 20.1 26.0 43.4 21.7 (1.8 m) 30.7 (3.2 m) Unshackle Private Institutions: Virtual Stagnation in the Public Sector

24. Unshackle Private Universities and Colleges: Learn from the U.S. • Genuine competition will have to come from private universities (Harvard, Princeton, Columbia etc.) • This will also help improve standards in public universities • Freedom to set salaries will lead to faculty mobility across universities • Freedom to set fees in private universities will also help establish the principle of fees in public universities

25. Augmenting Financial Resources • Public institutions funding: public funds, fees and income from other sources including charitable contributions, project grants from the industry and government, sales of publications and income from renting land and other facilities on the campus. • Public expenditure: down from 1% of the GDP in 1980-81 to 0.6 in 2003-04 • Tuition fees: 15 to 20% of operating expenditures in the 1950s but down to 2-3% today

26. Remove the Barriers to Foreign Scholars • Department of Higher Education Guidelines: , “In case a foreign scholar proposes to undertake a research project in a university/institution of higher learning in India, he is required to make an application in the prescribed proforma to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (Department of Higher Education) and get his research project approved by the Government before he is allowed to undertake any research in a university/institution.” • Universities and institutions of higher learning hosting an international conference must also get prior permission from the HRD Ministry on virtually all aspects of the conference including foreign scholars likely to participate. • A university wishing to host a foreign scholar as a visiting professor must get clearance of the HRD Ministry

27. What are the chances of Reforms? • No worse than of trade and investment liberalization in 1991. Few thought at the time that India will ever give up License Raj or the monopoly of telecommunications and airline industry.