Invest more to get dividend

The Indian economy of the upcoming decades of 21st century is going to be distinctive compared with that of the last decades of 20th century. And the differentiator would be the demographic dividend-- the average age of Indian population is 27 compared with 48 in Japan, 46 in the US and 42 in Europe.  But there will be one condition: the youngsters get proper education and the right skill sets. And the role of the government in ensuring this is multifarious.

UNESCO says higher education provides the link between the intellectual and educational role of universities on one hand and the development of society on the other. Raising skills holds the key to higher living standards and well-being. Investing in knowledge creation and enabling its diffusion are key to creating high-wage employment and enhancing productivity growth, points out OECD. Higher education sector in the economy is responsible for generating quality workforce, supporting the primary, secondary and service sectors as a whole, carrying out research and generating new knowledge and stimulating technologies.

India's enrollment rates in higher education have been very low compared to those of developed nations. All India Survey on Higher Education 2017-18 indicated that over 70 per cent of the young population aged between 18 and 23, covered under enrollment rates, does not join in higher learning centres. Focus on improving the enrollment rate is essential since it has been vigorously linked to poverty alleviation. On an average, one year of education results in 10 per cent increase in wage earnings, said 2014 UNESCO report. It also offers a cushion for the working population against exploitation by boosting the band of opportunities, improving health, reducing income disparities and driving economic progress, adds the report.

The union government has allocated an average of 1.62 per cent of the budget on higher education for the past five years. The Union budget 2019-20 has earmarked Rs 93,847.64 crore for the education sector, an increase of over 10 per cent from the last budget allocation of Rs 85,010 crore. Of this, Rs 37,461.01 crore has been allocated to higher education and Rs 56,386.63 crore for school education. This share of higher education in the total pie is alarmingly low and if this trend continues, the future of our youngsters may not be all that bright.

Among public universities, around 97 per cent of students study in state universities and only the remaining 3 per cent in central universities. However, it is dismal that 57.5 per cent of the allocation for education in the Union budget goes to central universities and premier institutes such as IITs and IIMs. It is extremely essential for the state universities to grab more funds and resources considering the student load they carry. The state of affairs prevailing in the present system is that the state universities are funded partially by the Union government through the University Grants Commission and Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA/National Higher Education Scheme) and the other part by the state governments. However, owing to resource crunch, the state governments are not able to support higher education the way it demanded.

Indian universities have consistently ranked low in global university rankings. Not even a single Indian university has ranked in the top 200 in various surveys; only five institutes make it to the top 500. These rankings are mainly based on the number of teachers, quality of teaching and the amount and quality of research. Universities in India endure acute dearth of faculty: 33 to 50 per cent of vacancies remain open at a given time. Also, India's expenditure on research is 0.62 per cent of the GDP, lower than all the nations in the BRICS group and less than one-third of the United States (2.74 per cent) and Europe (1.85 per cent). Higher education will stand meaningless without quality publications and research, and it is time we expand research from just specialised and premier institutes to Central and state universities, too.

The state universities are in a really bad state. If the government continues to give more funds to the institutes that are doing better, then it is abandoning the state universities and the students who most need good quality higher education.

Almost all developed nations earmark more than 6 per cent of their GDP on education. Considering the boundless inequality and poverty in India, education has a vital role to play in accomplishing social and economic mobility and government investment in higher education is the most effective tool for this. In the absence of a quality-oriented government-sponsored higher education system, it is unworkable to envisage moving towards a fair, ethical, non-discriminatory, generous and supportive economy. In short, quality education needs to be made available to all if we are aiming at creating a equitable world for our future generation.

The advice given to the youth in India by Philip Kotler, who is considered the father of modern marketing, in his last visit to India, needs special attention. He advised them to get into more entrepreneurial and innovative ventures so that they can be job providers rather than job seekers. He added that the youth should put efforts on reviving traditional industrial activities through innovation and improvisation and establishing Indian brand in the global market for their high quality products.

It is disturbing that the University-led research doesn't bring about meaningful results with practical utility. We must look for research contributions of universities that are highly useful in the fields of science and technology, social sciences and humanities. The major problem the universities, especially state universities, confronts is the paucity of funds and dearth of qualified and committed faculty. With more funding, the universities will be able to conduct meaningful research in areas of great potential such as health sciences, bio-medical sciences, genomics, data sciences, machine learning, agriculture, fisheries sciences, food production, space and astrophysics and so on. The research findings of the universities can bridge gap between ideas and practical applicability in various spheres of economic and scientific activities of national significance.

The higher education sector should be streamlined so as to raise the quality of skills to the levels demanded by a potential employer as entrepreneurs or required by persons to start one's own business. The higher education sector can be strengthened so as to drive career counseling and guidance initiatives as it has been a pressing need of the hour at the ground level. This is more true in the light of drastic transformation in the employment market with the entry of new jobs showing exit sign to the redundant jobs.

It is wistful that currently India lags behind even backward nations such as Sudan when it comes to its investments in higher education, an indicator to measure the commitment towards economic growth. It is high time to change this sad state of affairs. In order to reap maximum benefits out of the potential demographic dividend, it is imperative that union budget shares not less than three per cent of GDP exclusively for higher education.

(The writer is former dean and UGC Emeritus Professor, University of Kerala)