By R.N.Bhaskar
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"More than 16,500 students from 34 schools in Mumbai were asked to appear for a quiz. More than 75% had failed in English and more than 70% in Mathematics. This was alarming."

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Everyone’s talking about a crisis that is facing the country in respect of politics, the breakdown of social values, the increasing pressure domestic industries will soon face if cheaper imports flood the market…. The list is almost endless.

But very few people realize that a bigger crisis is in the offing. And this crisis could virtually tear the country apart like nothing else has done before, not even religious strife or the country’s much maligned caste system.

And that is the crisis confronting education. Because without a good refocusing on education, there is a very good chance that most of India’s youth will be consigned to the dustbins of what industry politely calls “unemployables”. You see them in most people who queue up before unemployment exchanges, application forms in hands, and trying to get clerical, secretarial, menial or even teaching assignments.

The “unemployable” are those who possess a school passing certificate (be it SSC, or HSC, or their equivalents), a graduation certificate but who does not possess the skills required of him to work in an office.

A survey of 34 schools

Two of the most basic skills required in most offices today, are the ability to read and write English (as English remains the international language of business) and the ability to think logically. Yet, when two organizations, E-convergence Technologies Limited, an education infrastructure company, and CESR, a research company engaged in conducting research on subjects of socio-economic relevance, decided to take a look at competence levels of students in these two subjects in a metropolis like Mumbai, they were shocked.
The survey covered 34 schools – largely private schools, not municipality funded schools – and exhorted students in classes VI and VII to appear for a quiz within their respective school premises for purposes of administrative convenience and so that the quiz should be taken seriously. A total of 16,500 students were covered. The questions in Mathematics were simple, like “put the numbers in the right sequence”.

When the results were compiled, they found that more than 75% had failed in English and more than 70% in Mathematics. This was alarming. All the quiz papers were re-examined, and except for a few errors, there was little change. The failure rate rested at 75% and 70% for English and Mathematics respectively.

Shocking results

This sent out a shocking message. Most children today do not even have the skills to speak English properly. Not surprisingly judgements dictated by judges are defective in the language they use, which in turn leads to more interpretational errors and further disputes. Circulars drafted by the government are full of drafting errors which lead to more heartburn and unnecessary expense, and instead of concentrating on more profitable aspects of running an enterprise, most managers spend several hours of their time going through every word of the letters drafted by their secretaries and their officers.
The case of Mathematics is even more worrisome. This is the only subject which helps evaluate the logical thinking ability of a child. If this faculty is not developed, the ability of a child to think logically through an entire sequence of events also remains poorly developed. The fact remains that most students are not taught Mathematics properly. Not surprisingly, most Indians flunk aptitude tests, because the ability to think logically has remained underdeveloped.

And the chief reason for this can be found in the fact that most good teachers have been leaving the teaching profession. The good teachers who remain – and they represent a minuscule minority – are belong to three categories. The first are those who choose to remain teachers out a missionary zeal. The second represent those who see teaching as a second income for the household – usually wives of officers serving the government either in the armed forces or in the bureaucracy. The third comprise those who know that they are good teachers, and usually look at the job as a platform from where they can advertise their skills and then get students for private tuitions (either at their homes or through coaching classes). But the vast majority – some estimate this number to be over 85% of the existing number of teachers – are teachers who have stayed on in teaching because they cannot get (or do not want) any other job.

That is why private education has become very expensive. There are very few good teachers, and the law of demand and supply has allowed reasonably good teaching to become very very expensive. That also explains why over 80% of enrolments to the IITs and the IIMs of India are people of affluent family backgrounds, who could afford good teaching, or had the benefit of good teaching from their own homes (because their parents were well-educated). It also explains why most managers come from upper-middle class income backgrounds.

And it also explains why even the new economy which has spawned jobs for call centers have begun facing difficulties in finding people who can speak the English language well, let alone pronounce it well. That also explains why so many people stay on the lists of the unemployed with unemployment exchanges. And it also explains why there will be many more jobless in the coming years.

Why are there so few good teachers? And what is the way out? Well, that will be another article.