Educational Educational SocietySociety

Educational Educational SocietySociety

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Summary• Primary education is a fundamental right in India,

and at the international level an important Millennium Development Goal to which India and the Bank are totally committed.

• GOI and States increasingly recognize education as a critical input for human capital development, employment/ jobs, and economic growth, and are putting major financial and technical resources into this effort.

• Nevertheless, demand for education far exceeds supply, in terms of both access and quality, at all levels.

• Anxious to get YOUR views as to how the Bank can improve its impact on access, learning outcomes and reducing skills shortages.

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Basic Education• Two decades of focused programs in basic

education have reduced out-of-school youth to about 10 M (down from 25 M in 2003), most from marginalized social groups. Net enrollment rate is 85%, with social disparities.

• Key challenge is to finish the “access agenda” and dramatically increase focus on quality, with more attention to classroom processes, basic reading skills in early grades, teacher quality and accountability, community/parent oversight, evaluation/assessment.

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Secondary Education• Access and Quality remain big challenges.

• Gross enrollment rate of 40%, with significant gaps between genders, social groups, urban/rural, such that most secondary students are urban boys from wealthier population groups.

• Private aided and unaided schools = 60% of all secondary schools, and growing.

• Overloaded curriculum, poor teaching practices and low primary level quality affect secondary quality.

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Vocational Education and Training (VET)

• VET system is small, and not responding of needs of labor market; <40% of graduates find employment quickly.

• Insufficient involvement of industry and employers in VET system management, internships.

• Lack of incentives of public training institutions to improve performance.

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Technical and Higher Education

• Numerically huge: 330 universities and 18,000 colleges

• Substantial private provision in professional education.

• But just 11% of youth 18-23 are enrolled.

• Problems of capacity, quality, relevance, and public funding. Hard to retain qualified faculty. Limited research.

• Several world-class institutions.

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GOI Education Strategy

• Unprecedented priority to universal elementary education.

• Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan: aims to universalize elementary education by 2010, and improve learning outcomes.

• Education cess of 3% on income tax, corporation tax, excise and customs duties generates necessary resources

• Cost-Share: was 50/50 (2007), moving to 65/35 Center/State

• Estimate: 11th Plan: ’07-’12: 60,000-70,000 crores (US$17 billion)

• Increased focus on quality and upper primary in phase II.

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Thank You