The Sociology and Politics of Development by Varma Baidya Nath;

Author:Varma, Baidya Nath; [Varma, Baidya Nath]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2022-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Education

The question of education is crucial to modernization in two senses: education makes for better citizens, and education is needed as an input in the growth of the industrial sector in the form of providing trained personnel and scientific know-how to the country. No one can deny the value of education per se, but one must also consider the costs of providing ‘crash programs’ of education.

Let us briefly examine the educational system of India for underscoring some crucial issues of education in the modernizing nations. In 1900, there were 16,000 students in institutions of higher learning in India. Today, there are three million students registered in about 100 universities or university-level institutions and 3,000 colleges located in all regions of the country. Out of these three million students, one million will drop out after three years, either with a degree or without one. They will be looking for jobs, and if unsuccessful, will join an army of 2.3 million educated people registered as unemployed by the governmental agencies in 1971. This is the situation in higher education.5

Under the Directive Principles of the Indian Constitution, adopted in 1950. free and compulsory elementary education is to be provided for all children up to the age of 14. Forty per cent of the Indian population (approximately 635 million in 1978) is below 15 years of age. In 1975, there were 64 million pupils (constituting 77 per cent of the age group 6-11 years) in primary school, 15 million pupils (constituting 32 per cent of the age group 11-14 years) in junior high school, and 8 million pupils (constituting 19 per cent of the age group 14-17 years) in high schools. Thus approximately 87 million students were receiving education of one form or another below the college level. The literacy rate of India in 1971 was only 30 per cent (40 per cent for males and 18 per cent for females); it had changed to 35 per cent by 1975. To these statistics, we would like to add one more set of data. There are 39 national laboratories to take care of the industrial needs of the country and 200 other laboratories for other purposes (including agricultural research). The ratio of annual Research and Development outlay to GNP doubled in India between 1958 and 1969. In 1967, India's Research and Development manpower was comparable to that of the United Kingdom and West Germany; it has kept pace in this regard.

Now let us explore the implications of these statistics. We noted in an earlier chapter that when India became independent from British rule in 1947, it had a well-trained bureaucracy and a well-developed system of education. In 1951, India started its first of a series of Five-Year Plans and, therefore, was able to plan for training its academic, technical, and professional personnel fairly well. So instead of any shortage, it is now faced with a surplus of trained personnel in many fields, so that, in 1973, there were reportedly 80,000 engineers out of jobs. Many

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