en English

Educating India

Nearly 40% of India’s citizens are aged 13-35 – the largest youth population in the world – and by some estimates, almost 25% of the global workforce will be Indian by 2025. But India is doing a remarkably poor job of giving India’s young people the skills and opportunities that they need.

NEW DELHI – Three years ago, as I walked through the densely populated slums of Mumbai toward my new teaching job at a low-income school, India’s extreme educational inequities were starkly on display. Muddy water flowed alongside ramshackle homes, and the stench of garbage was overpowering. When I reached the dilapidated school building, students were trickling in for the day in their tattered uniforms. My dim, musty classroom was cluttered with old cupboards and creaking benches, leaving little room for the students themselves.

Despite this being an English-language school, it quickly became apparent that few teachers – and even fewer students – could speak much English at all. Indeed, most of my fourth-grade students were unable to recognize alphabets or perform simple addition.

The appalling state of India’s education system – in which 31% of students do not make it past primary school, and a mere 9% complete secondary school – seriously undermines the country’s hopes of becoming a global superpower. Yet little progress has been made in equipping young people to drive India’s future growth.

https://prosyn.org/zM6DwKQ