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Indian Education System - What Is Lacking?

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Suresh Rangarajan, Founder & CEO, CoLiveSuresh create products & concepts and clocking first revenues with eye on unit economics

India, with an abundance of human capital and an increasing per capita income, is fast marching towards becoming one of the world’s largest economies and further competing with countries like the U.S. and China. Although the world is brimming with opportunities, Millennials in India believe that they are not confident enough when they are pitted against their global counterparts.

This gaping void is slowly but surely giving way to a change in the Indian education system. One can no longer be satisfied with one’s academic achievements alone, as they are fast becoming redundant in a digital economy. New skills have to be learnt each day. Set against this backdrop, International educational institutions (IEI) & innovative models of learning are now becoming increasingly popular in the Indian market. There is no dearth of examples to qualify this growing trend. Facebook’s recent investment in the Indian Education market with $50 million in Byjus is the evidence for the fact that they have faith in the opportunities in India.



Education as an Opportunity in India

From a statistics stand point, the Indian student population today is the largest in the world at around 315 million, of which around 120 million students are in the age group of 18-22 years. The education market in India is expected to reach over $200 billion by FY17.

The de-globalisation wave impacting Europe with Brexit shows how we have to be self-sufficient & capable in catering to our own economic needs, and clearly, there is no better way than in investing for the future in Indian millennials who are rearing to become a formidable workforce. So, where do all these mind blowing facts lead to? We need to open atleast 1,000 universities in the coming decade to cater to this spiking demand. I don’t think the solution lies in the existing education system, but we need to embrace and adopt world class facilities and education systems.

One can no longer be satisfied with one’s academic achievements alone



Need for Globalization of Indian Education

International educational institutes have realized this trend and potential and are looking to set up their campuses or partner with Indian institutes to cater to this burgeoning Indian student population. Nearly 14 per cent students in U.S. universities are from India. Imagine the impact if those very same universities were to come into our own country to provide us with the same education. We would save a lot on student debts & further be able to build a cohesive education system right here in our backyard.

There are millions of Indian Millennials who harbour dreams of studying in universities like Harvard and Stanford. Millennials strongly believe that the Indian Education System, the government & other stakeholders in the market should recognize this condition and take the necessary steps to make quality education accessible, relevant & economical.