That India has the largest illiterate population in the world -- something in the range of 424 million -- is widely known. When the Human De...
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That India has the largest illiterate population in the world 8212; something in the range of 424 million 8212; is widely known. When the Human Development in South Asia 1998 HDSA report, which was released on Saturday, points out that education is the key to the future economic prosperity of this region, it is only stating the obvious. There is, however, one issue highlighted in this report that has, for some reason, not sufficiently enthused politicians and educationists in this country and that is the vital importance of targeted technical education. There is no future in the 21st century for technically illiterate nations 8212; this is the lesson that countries like India, which are making the shift from the agricultural to the industrial and services sectors, must learn.
Consider this: while only 4.4 per cent of India8217;s educational budget went into furthering technical education in 1994-8217;95, eight years earlier, Malaysia had already decided to devote 18 per cent of its educational budget in training the youngfor technical vocations. The HDSA report points out that while less than 2 per cent of students in the relevant age group are enrolling for technical education in South Asia, the comparative figure for East Asia is 10 per cent. This has, in turn, profound implications for the economy. For one, targeted technical training creates conditions for growth. For another, it brings down unemployment levels by creating employable skills. Behind every successful economy, there have been initiatives of this kind. A survey of a Chinese automobile industry, cited in the report showed how worker productivity was enhanced by 7 per cent through proper technical education.
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Apart from not having concentrated sufficiently on promoting technical education in general, India seems to have also erred in not ensuring that its facilities, such as they are, get equitably shared. According to the HDSA report, 70 per cent of Indian polytechnics are concentrated in only four states of the country. What8217;s more, only 17 per cent of thoseenrolled in these institutions are women. But by far the biggest flaw in this country8217;s efforts to train its workers lies in the mismatch between training and employment. The result is that while there is a shortage of trained skills, a great number of trained personnel don8217;t have jobs. One estimate puts the number of unemployed technically trained graduates in India at one lakh. This unhappy situation can only be tackled with some forward planning, assisted by up-to-date surveys and tracer studies that monitor the needs of the national labour markets. Technical training must anticipate market needs because it cannot be the other way round. Of course, none of this will happen if the country does not first impart good primary and secondary school education to its young inheritors. Technical education cannot exist in isolation. Basic education plus technical training, this is the formula that could win the future for this country. The faster policy makers realise this the better.
