Al Alam Al Youm, p.2, (28/11/2006)

Bridging the gap between educational institutions is the key to the economic reform in India

By: Elhamy Shawki

India is exerting strenuous efforts to catch up with China amid indications that the Indian economy is achieving growth rates that exceeded its Chinese counterpart in the field of exports. India is mainly focusing on education and reforming educational institutions. It is working on bridging the gap between the elite institutions on the one hand and the second-class and third class educational institutions on the other. Elite educational institutions provide the best type of education and qualify their graduates to join the largest companies whether inside India or abroad.

Due to its desire to building a strong economy, India started to focus on developing its human resources and training students to acquire information about market mechanisms.

Experts divide educational institutions in India into three categories: the abovementioned elite category and the second-class category and third class category that do not enable its students to express their points of views or develop their talents.

The students of the second and third categories represent the majority of students in India and they lack the simplest skills.

The latest statistics indicate that 10% of the total number of graduates in India can easily find vacancies in big companies. It is worth mentioning that Indian engineers graduating every year from universities represent 25% of the total number of university graduates.

Education system in India is still a big puzzle for many analysts. According to 2001 statistics, more than 17% of university graduates suffer from unemployment.

Many companies across India are in bad need of experienced labour and so education should focus on sharpening students' skills in order to bridge
the gap of supply and demand on skilled manpower.

Educational institutions in India are working on developing the leadership abilities of their graduates and enhancing their skills, especially in the field of telecommunication.

In fact, the problem is not related to the costs of education. For instance, the fares of St. Stephen College in Mumbai are very expensive and still considered a second-class educational institution given the poor skills of its graduates.

Students say that there is a communication gap between them and their professors in the universities and the low training opportunities. This is why graduates fail to visualize many problems and find out appropriate solutions for them, experts said.

Although Indian exports grow annually at 21%, the big Indian companies could not offer more than 25,000 job opportunities in 2006 for about 1.5 million university graduates.

Given the above-mentioned information, the Indian education needs to be restructured as soon as possible to cope with the rapid growth of the Indian economy, which is involved in a severe competition with other Asian economies. India still has other privileges, such as IT, software and cheap labour.

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