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If we were to understand the ‘lure of quality education in the foreign land’, we have to understand the utter failure of the government-run universities that outnumber the private ones. It is not that the old times didn’t have students going abroad for quality higher education. But the number was much less as compared to the present because not all could afford the cost while scholarships were limited and securing a study loan from banks wasn’t as easy. Limited income restricted ambitions. The time has changed now. The degradation of education here can be attributed to several factors, majorly to the act of turning a blind eye to the low productivity of highly-paid teachers, who once recruited are assured of a life-time job security and lack of reworked syllabus that ensure jobs and entrepreneurship.

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In a first, some years ago the institutes here collaborated with some popular names abroad, which would eventually lead foreign institutes/universities to set up their independent shops in India, to have courses in which students could fly out to study a couple of years on the collaborators’ campuses. Soon, the online foreign course boom caught the fancy of the students. Meanwhile, the home scenario in general didn’t show expected improvement. There are some exceptions though. As we said earlier, these exceptions have always been like that; but without a similar effort from others, they aren’t enough to lift the country up the international rankings of quality education. We may expect India’s toppers to go a notch up when they compete with their foreign counterparts.

When we talk of education, it shouldn’t only be about the higher part of it. It’s the school education (right from nursery to junior college) that makes you eligible to step up the ladder. The state and Centre are still the main providers of school education in India, despite overcrowding of expensive private schools that work with national and international boards. Recent trends show that the governments aren’t willing to provide salary and other grants to private schools that are being opened with an eye on a buzzing education market. In that case, the government should ensure that their own schools provide quality and affordable education instead of closing them down.

Dharmendra Jore is political editor, mid-day. He tweets @dharmendrajore

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