Asia/India/Octubre de 2016/Fuente: The Indian Express
RESUMEN: El miércoles la India clasificó en el lugar 87º a nivel mundial en términos de igualdad de género a pesar de un salto de 21 lugares desde el año pasado, debido en gran medida al progreso en el frente de la educación, mientras que Islandia ha encabezado la tabla. La India ocupó el número 108 en el índice de disparidad entre los sexos anual compilado por el Foro Económico Mundial con sede en Ginebra. India ha cerrado su brecha de género en un 2 por ciento en un año y su brecha que llega a 68 por ciento en los cuatro pilares que WEF en medidas como – economía, la educación, la salud y la representación política. La mejora más importante ha sido la educación en la que «la India ha conseguido cerrar su brecha en su totalidad en la enseñanza primaria y secundaria», dijo WEF, añadiendo que en la esfera económica, «aún queda mucho trabajo por hacer». India ocupa el lugar 136 en este pilar de 144 países.
India was Wednesday ranked low at 87th place globally in terms of gender equality despite a jump of 21 places from last year largely due to progress on the education front while Iceland has topped the chart. India was ranked 108th on the annual Global Gender Gap index compiled by Geneva-based World Economic Forum. India has closed its gender gap by 2 per cent in a year and its gap now stands at 68 per cent across the four pillars that WEF measures — economy, education, health and political representation.
The major improvement has been in education where “India has managed to close its gap entirely in primary and secondary education”, WEF said, adding that in the economic sphere, “much work remains to be done”. India ranks 136 in this pillar out of 144 countries.
On educational attainment, India was ranked at 113th place; in terms of health and survival, it was a placed at a lowly 142, while on political empowerment it was among the top 10 countries.
According to the WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report 2016, the prospects of global workplace gender parity slipped further, and economic parity between the genders could take 170 years after a “dramatic slowdown in progress”.
Globally, the leading four nations continue to be Scandinavian: Iceland (1), Finland (2), Norway (3) and Sweden (4).
The next highest placed nation is Rwanda, which moves one place ahead of Ireland to 5th position. Following Ireland, the Philippines remains unchanged at 7th, narrowly ahead of Slovenia (8) and New Zealand (9), which both move up one place. With Switzerland dropping out of the top 10, 10th position is taken up by Nicaragua, WEF said.
In 2015, projections based on the Global Gender Gap Report data suggested that the economic gap could be closed within 118 years, or 2133. The latest report noted that the prospects for workplace gender equality have slipped beyond our lifetimes to 2186.
“Slowdown partly down (due) to chronic imbalances in salaries and labour force participation, despite the fact that, in 95 countries, women attend university in equal or higher numbers than men,” the report said.
In this latest edition, the report finds that progress towards parity in the key economic pillar has slowed dramatically with the gap – which stands at 59 per cent – now larger than at any point since 2008.
“Behind this decline are a number of factors. One is salary, with women around the world on average earning just over half of what men earn despite, on average, working longer hours taking paid and unpaid work into account,” WEF said.
Another challenge is stagnant labour force participation, with the global average for women at 54 per cent compared with 81 per cent for men. Moreover, the number of women in senior positions also remains stubbornly low, with only four countries in the world having equal numbers of male and female legislators, senior officials and managers.
Srinagar / 26 de octubre de 2016 / Fuente: http://www.newindianexpress.com/
Three school buildings were set ablaze by unknown persons in Kashmir over the past 24 hours, setting alarm bells ringing among authorities who have decided to step up security around educational institutions.
A Government school was set ablaze by unknown persons in the wee hours today in Noorbagh area of the city but the blaze was put out by fire tenders, a police official said.
He said the school building suffered damage in the fire and the firefighting operation.
In another incident, miscreants tried to burn down Government Higher Secondary School at Aishmuqam in Anantnag district, the official said.
The school building was saved by the timely intervention of fire brigade personnel, he said adding one window panel was damaged due to the fire.
Last night, fire broke out in a building of Government Middle School in Sadrukote Bala of Bandipora district.
Fire tenders were rushed in and the blaze was put out, the official said, adding the incident is suspected to be handiwork of miscreants.
The official said in view of these incidents, the security patrol around school buildings have been increased to ensure that such incidents are not repeated.
State government has announced that annual board examinations will be held next month even though the schools have remained closed since July following killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces.
Protests have been held against the government decision to hold examinations.
RESUMEN: El Sistema de Educación Indígena debe dotar las escuelas eficazmente y centrarse en la mejora del rendimiento escolar para proporcionar una educación de calidad para todos los niños, así lo afirmó el profesor Pranati Panda, Jefe de la Unidad de Normas Escolares y Evaluación (USSE), Universidad Nacional de Planificación de la Educación y de la Administración (NUEPA), Nueva Delhi. En este contexto, se prevé el Programa Nacional de Estándares y Evaluación de la Escuela (NPSSE) como un paso positivo para que todas las escuelas participen de forma continua en el mejoramiento de sí mismo, dijo el profesor de la panda. Panda estaba hablando en los dos días del programa de la Escuela Nacional de Estándares y Evaluación de Estado del Grupo Central, distrito y los funcionarios del Centro de Investigación para la Educación.
Indian education system needs to introduce effective schools and focus on improving school performance to provide quality education to all kids, said Professor Pranati Panda, Head of Unit on School Standards and Evaluation (USSE), National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), New Delhi.
In this context, the National programme on School Standards and Evaluation (NPSSE) is being envisaged as a positive step to enable all schools to continuously engage themselves in self-improvement, Prof Panda said.
Panda was speaking at the two-day Nagaland State Level Orientation and Workshop on Shalla Siddhi, the National programme on School Standards and Evaluation for State Core Group, District and Educational Block Research Centre officials on Thursday.
Expressing that government schools have not been performing upto the mark despite immense efforts, she said through NPSSE a growing emphasis is being placed upon developing a comprehensive and holistic school evaluation system as central to school improvement.
She said that NUEPA under the aegis of Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is leading the NPSSE with an aim at evaluating each school as an institution and creating a culture of self-progression with accountability. The NPSSE, she said, visualizes ‘School Education’ as the means and ‘School Improvement’ as the goal. Delivering the welcome address, Nagaland State Mission Director for SSA, Gregory Thejawelie said through the programme, efforts would be made to evaluate the performance of the schools in general. It would also cater to the diverse and essential needs of the schools and teachers in the country, he said.
Bengaluru / 19 de octubre de 2016 / Por: Rashmi Belur / Fuente: http://www.newindianexpress.com/
The engineering students who lost their seats for not heeding the warning by Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) have approached KEA authorities, who have expressed helplessness. The only option left is for the students to appear for the Common Entrance Test (CET) in 2017.
A KEA official told Express, “We cannot change rules now. Even after series of instructions and warnings, students have made the mistake.”
One desperate student said, “I got to know about my seat cancellation only when I got a call from college authorities. When I enquired with KEA they said I have been allotted dental seat. But I made the option entry for fun. When I approached the dental college where I got admission, they said the last date was over.”
The parent of another student said he was an electrician and had managed to save money for his son’s engineering course. “Now he has lost the seat and I am scared he will lose a year. We request the higher education minister to intervene,” he said. Most of those affected were studying in top colleges like BMS College of Engineering, RV College of Engineering, Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology and others.
“Seats of two students in our college have been cancelled. We have asked if this can be considered special case as students will lose one precious year. If the government agrees, we will revert it,” Dr K Mallikarjun Babu, principal, BMS College of Engineering.
Asia/India/Octubre de 2016/Autora: Nisha Thapliyal/Fuente: Green Left.org
RESUMEN: El AllIndia Foro por el Derecho a la Educación (AIFRTE) acaba de lanzar un documental sobre su lucha contra la privatización de la educación en la India. La película, pelearemos, ganaremos ofrece una rara visión de las voces de base para la educación pública en la India. Fue filmada en gran parte durante una marcha nacional 2014, cuando activistas AIFRTE de toda la India emprendieron un viaje por carretera a la ciudad central india de Bhopal, en el estado de Madhya Pradesh. Durante el viaje de un mes, activistas detenidos en las ciudades y pueblos para celebrar reuniones públicas y eventos de educación popular para crear conciencia sobre el asalto neoliberal en la educación pública. La marcha culminó con una reunión de tres días en Bhopal con actuaciones culturales de Jan geet (canciones populares), y el teatro popular y discursos de intelectuales y activistas públicos respetados.
The All India Forum for the Right to Education (AIFRTE) has just released a documentary about its struggle against the privatisation of education in India. The film, We Shall Fight, We Shall Win provides a rare glimpse into grassroots voices for public education in India.
It was largely filmed during a 2014 national march when AIFRTE activists from all over India undertook a road trip to the central Indian city of Bhopal in the state of Madhya Pradesh. During the month-long journey, activists stopped in towns and villages to hold public meetings and popular education events to raise awareness about the neoliberal assault on public education. The march culminated with a three-day meeting in Bhopal featuring cultural performances of jan geet (people’s songs), and popular theatre and speeches by respected public intellectuals and activists.
The 54 minute-long documentary is available in English and Hindi and can be watched and shared online via the AIFRTE Campaign YouTube channel. This article provides a brief historical overview of AIFRTE and discusses key messages in the film. Readers are encouraged to view the film and share their feedback with AIFRTE through the YouTube page or via email to aifrte.secretariat@gmail.com.
AIFRTE was officially founded in 2009 at a key moment in the history of Indian education — the passage of the 2009 Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act. Despite its name, the Act has primarily functioned to weaken a historically underfunded and unequal public education system.
Six years on, the unfunded legislation remains virtually unimplemented. The closure of government primary schools continues apace — most recently in the wealthy state of Andhra Pradesh — as do efforts to undermine the status of government school teachers. Instead of increased accountability, the Act has absolved the government of all responsibility for its resounding failure to provide universal and equitable education for all Indian children.
It is in these conditions that India has become destination #1 for venture capitalists and philanthro-capitalists who seek to profit from education in countries with struggling public education systems.
In India, these currently include vulture capitalist-funded actors such as Omega Schools and Bridge International Academies (funded by Pearson Affordable Learning Funds), and the Indian School Finance Company (funded by Grey Ghost Ventures).
These for-profit providers offer “low-cost” English-language private education to families who believe that learning English will secure the futures of their children. In reality, these for-profit schools have only added another tier to a multi-tiered education system which ensures that poor, low-caste, Adivasi and Muslim children, mainly girls, continue to be denied equitable and culturally responsive education.
The failed promises of the “low cost” private school movement have been amply documented by education researchers.
Since its inception, AIFRTE has worked to develop a national coalition which can sustain local and national resistance to education privatization. It now includes 45 member organisations and social movements located in 20 out of 29 states in the country.
Members include community groups, not-for-profit non-governmental organisations, university student and teacher unions and social movements as well as individual educators, public intellectuals, parents, students and concerned citizens. The goals of this coalition are captured in one of their favoured slogans “Education is not for sale, it is a people’s right”.
From November 2 to December 4, 2014, 2000 activists from all four corners of India travelled by road to Bhopal — the site of the world’s worst industrial disaster — the deadly Union Carbide gas leak in 1984.
The Struggle for Education March sought to raise awareness about key challenges facing the Indian public education system, including:
the ongoing commercialisation and privatisation of public education through Foreign Direct Investment, so-called Public-Private Partnerships and the move to treat higher education as a tradeable commodity under the World Trade Organization-GATS framework; and
the destruction of a secular education system through policies and practices that institutionalised prejudice and discrimination based on caste, religion, gender, disability, language, and other forms of socio-cultural difference.
As an alternative to privatisation, the campaign put forward a vision of a fully-free and state-funded common education system based on Constitutional values of democracy, egalitarianism, socialism and secularism.
It also called for the medium of instruction in schools to reflect the diversity of languages that constitute Indian society and for Indian languages to be given primacy in all sectors of national life.
The march was also held in solidarity with two other ongoing people’s struggles: the three decades-long struggle for justice and compensation for the people of Bhopal, and north-eastern movements to repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) that gives security forces unrestrained powers for search, arrest and the use of deadly force against persons suspected of acting against the Indian state.
The documentary provides a “people’s history” of Indian education — a history that is rarely told in mainstream education discourse. Viewers can expect to learn about popular struggles for the right to education which have their roots in colonial and pre-colonial education and social reform movements around issues of caste, patriarchy, communalism and class inequality.
The documentary also recounts the evolution of post-independence education policy. It highlights the influence of the World Bank in the systematic dismantling of public education, which began in the 1980s.
It includes a range of voices that reflect the linguistic and cultural diversity of India including rarely represented voices from Adivasi (indigenous) and Dalit communities as well as from the militarised regions of Kashmir and central and north-eastern India. These voices testify to the exponential growth in educational inequality from the diverse perspectives of students, parents, activists and public intellectuals.
What makes this film unique is that many of these voices draw on rich regional cultural traditions of music, theatre and art to express themselves and raise public awareness.
The film makes several specific critiques of the Indian education system. First and foremost, that it is an unequal and segregated education system where privileged (upper- and middle-class and caste) children receive more and higher-quality educational opportunities because of the purchasing power and social status of their families.
The second critique addresses the dominant “human capital” orientation in Indian education — public and private — which is focused exclusively on producing students who will be productive and obedient workers for the capitalist economy.
Activists argue that curriculum and pedagogy fail to inculcate social awareness and responsibility and the traits are necessary for full and direct citizen participation.
The film challenges dominant perceptions among policy-makers, media and the public that “private is always better than public”. This perception takes the form of a widespread belief that children who attend English-medium private schools can be assured of securing well-paying and respectable jobs.
The reality is that after almost a decade of “private schools for the poor” — or so-called low-cost private schools — the evidence shows that these children are in no way able to compete with graduates of elite or high-fee private schools. Furthermore, even English-speaking university graduates remain unemployed or under-employed in overwhelmingly large numbers.
Last but not least, the film links the problem of unequal and segregated education in a society deeply stratified by class, caste, gender, religion, and class. The scope of injustice is reflected in the lack of access to high-quality universal health care, widespread poverty, state-condoned violence against Dalits and religious minorities, the displacement of Adivasi people from their traditional lands and consequently, the destruction of their cultures and way of life.
In sum, the film argues that struggles for public education are intrinsically connected to other struggles for economic, social and cultural justice.
Cuatro adolescentes luchan por los derechos de las niñas en Colombia, Nepal, India y Nicaragua
A los 17 años, la nepalí Sabina Shresta ha conseguido evitar el matrimonio de por lo menos seis niñas con hombres mayores en su país. Brisa Isela Bucardo, de 16 años, es consejera comunitaria en Nicaragua y tiene un programa de radio, Zona 90, en el que habla sobre derechos de las mujeres, violencia doméstica y salud sexual. Shatabdi tiene 15 años y colabora con la policía de Nueva Delhi (India) en un programa de seguridad urbana. Ha logrado reducir casi en un 90% los casos de acoso que ocurrían en su comunidad. Yadis Xiomara, colombiana de 15 años, preside la Plataforma Juvenil de su municipio, donde aboga por el derecho a la educación de las niñas. Siguiendo el ejemplo de la pakistaní Malala Yousafzai, quien ganó en 2014 el Premio Nobel de la Paz, esas cuatro jóvenes, que trabajan con la ONG Plan International y que están en Madrid para promover el Día Internacional de la Niña (11 de octubre), luchan para romper los estereotipos de género y empoderar a las mujeres.
“Ser niña es ser invisible”, afirma Brisa. En la zona indígena donde vive, le han enseñado que su papel es hacer los quehaceres del hogar, servir al hombre y ser una buena madre de familia. Las niñas de entre cinco y 14 años dedican más tiempo que los niños de su misma edad a tareas del hogar y a ir a buscar agua y leña, un total de 160 millones de horas más, según un informe de Unicef. Pero Brisa sabe que puede hacer más que eso. “Quiero ser periodista. Así podré llevar a otras mujeres mensajes sobre qué hacer en una situación de violencia, por ejemplo”, cuenta con determinación en los ojos, muy negros, y en la voz.
En el caso de Yadis, quien vive en una comunidad rural, en la montaña, a 553 kilómetros de Bogotá, el principal problema es la dificultad que tienen para llegar a las aulas: los colegios están lejos de las poblaciones y, debido al conflicto de décadas entre el Gobierno colombiano y las FARC, hay minas en el camino. A lo largo de los años, algunos menores han muerto debido a las explosiones. “La educación es precaria, por eso carecemos de espacios de participación que incluyan a las niñas”, cuenta la joven.
Para mitigar la situación, Yadis montó un grupo en su escuela para dar charlas sobre los derechos de las mujeres. Ella habla, entre otras cosas, sobre la prevención de embarazos en la adolescencia y de enfermedades sexuales e incentiva a otras jóvenes a que tengan un “proyecto de vida”. El sueño de esta quinceañera es estudiar Derecho Político para convertirse en ministra de Educación en Colombia. “El desarrollo de un país depende de la educación, y las niñas somos una pieza clave en ese proceso”, afirma Yadis.
Sabina también lucha para que las cosas cambien en Nepal, que está entre los 10 países con mayores tasas de matrimonio infantil, según Unicef. Un estudio de 2013 realizado por la organización Plan Asia y el Centro Internacional para la Investigación sobre la Mujer indica que el 41% de las mujeres nepalesas entre los 20 y 24 años contrajeron matrimonio antes de la edad legal de 18 años. “Ser niña en Nepal es como llevar una cruz. Nos perciben simplemente como empleadas domésticas”, explica.
Para poner fin a esa via crucis, Sabina participa en talleres de promoción de los derechos infantiles, a través de los cuales ha podido frenar matrimonios forzados, ofreciendo protección a las víctimas de esa práctica. Su pasión es el trabajo social y por eso quiere ser consejera del Gobierno en políticas sociales.
El matrimonio infantil también es un problema en India. En la comunidad de Shatabdi, una colonia de reasentamientos, la mayoría de las chicas abandona la escuela después de ser obligadas a casarse cuando son adolescentes. Allí lo que se espera de una niña es que se eduque y se embellezca para llegar a ser una buena esposa, siguiendo unos cánones muy estrictos, como no exponerse al sol para tener la piel clara, no levantar nunca la voz ni reírse muy fuerte y hablar siempre de forma suave.
“Yo siempre quería jugar en la calle, pero me lo prohibían. Nunca he entendido porque una niña tiene que estar siempre en casa, renunciar a ir a la universidad y casarse tan pronto”, cuenta la joven, con una seguridad inesperada para su edad. Para hacer su comunidad más abierta y más segura, ella colabora con un programa de seguridad urbana y clases de defensa personal para mujeres. Su grupo organizó reuniones para que hubiera mayor presencia policial en las calles y así reducir los casos de acoso sexual.
“Pedí a las autoridades que nos ayuden a cumplir nuestros derechos”, dice Shatabdi. Ella nació el 1º de enero de 2001, el primer día del siglo XXI. Su nombre significa “secular”. Remite al principio de un cambio hacia una sociedad más igualitaria.
Asia/India/Octubre de 2016/Autor: K Yatish Rajawat/Fuente: Firstpost
RESUMEN: El fracaso del sistema de educación indígena es dura cuando se ve a la luz del hecho de que miles de estudiantes cada año van al extranjero para la educación universitaria. Universidades europeas e incluso los gobiernos europeos parecen tener un plan más definido para los estudiantes indios que la India. Un título de grado en la India es sobre todo una farsa en la mayoría de los colegios. Casi no hay educación impartida y se considera más un trampolín para una maestría o una necesidad de hacer otra cosa. presentar a los estudiantes en los colegios pasan su tiempo en todo menos en la educación. Los cursos son obsoletos, la facultad es inepta, analfabeta a los cambios del entorno. Mientras luchamos con la educación superior, Europa parece estar mirando a la estudiante de la India de conciencia. Cada vez son más los estudiantes están viajando al extranjero para estudiar. A principios de costo que solía ser un gran obstáculo para la educación en el extranjero. Pero como nuestro sistema de educación superior está colapsando otros países están viendo como una oportunidad. La canciller alemana, Angela Merkel, ha aprobado un plan de seis años para atraer a estudiantes de la India a Alemania.
The failure of Indian education system is stark when seen in light of the fact that thousands of students every year go abroad for college education. European universities and even the European governments seem to have a more definite plan for Indian students than India. A graduate degree in India is mostly a farce in most of the colleges. There is hardly any education imparted and it is seen as more a stepping stone for a masters or a necessity to do something else. Students file into colleges spend their time in everything but education. Courses are outdated, faculty is inept, illiterate to the changes around them.
A recent experience in Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University really brought all these issues upfront. The outreach cell of the university organised a seminar on globalisation. It roped in a public sector company as a sponsor, tied up with a one man think tank from Chandigarh. Invited to speak I was piqued as it seemed like a interesting effort. It seems only the invitation was genuine. Neither the university nor the organisers were actually interested in seminar. All that they were interested in was getting to know a minister. The obsession of the academia in Delhi with politicians is not new. Most faculty appointments are at behest of the politicians. Huge physical infrastructure but very poor soft infrastructure is not just true of public universities like Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha but it is even worse in private universities.
The highway from Delhi to Roorkee, is dotted with shells of buildings posing as private universities. Actually on any national highway anywhere if you see a glass or fancy building with nothing around it will be a private university. Everything is new and shiny, designed to grab a student’s attention. Large rooms are labelled labs with hardly any equipment inside, huge campus with skeletal staff and even less faculty.
As of 2014, there are 677 universities, 37,204 colleges and 11,443 stand-alone institutions in India, as per the statistics from the website of India’s HRD ministry. There is no dearth of institutions willing to give a degree for money, education or skills is not the concern. Higher education is in rot at all levels, the irony is that these numbers are touted as an indication of the prowess of our education system. Not a sign that this rapid mushrooming has created an edifice that is destroying an aspirational class. There is very little debate and discussion on the fact that our higher education system has completely collapsed.
A study done by a private body says that approximately 18.43 percent of engineering graduates are employable, which means 80 percent of them are unemployable. The situation is worse for plain graduates and that is where the real malaise lies. Employers say just 5 percent of the graduates in other disciplines are actually employable. What these figures mean is that in sum higher education or college education has collapsed. Do we see any concern around this collapse. NO.
The IITs, AIIMs, IIMs are cited as examples of success, not because they have great faculty but because of the students. How many faculty members from our so called Institutes of National Importance have done anything worthy. A committee under Anil Kakodkar was formed in 2011 to revamp the 30 NITs, the second rung of the IITs, and not the 37,204 colleges or the 11,304 institutions. The rationale according to the preamble to this committee says that these 30 NITs can aid in ‘nation building’. So what will the lakhs of students in thousands of colleges doing? If they are not involved in aiding the nation building exercise than we have a much bigger problem on hand.
Kakodkar’s report is a bundle of homilies, generalities and advice from geriatrics. It was submitted in 2014 to the then Education Minister Smriti Irani. Here is a sample of Kakodkar committee’s recommendation: “ICT for the NITs acts like a force multiplier. NITs must deploy and upgrade the IT infrastructure and associated facilities. Each institute must facilitate extensive use of computer-aided / on-line teaching, virtual labs, e-learning resources, connectivity with National Knowledge Network, etc». This is a recommendation in 2014, in the world of MOOCs, Coursera, and availability of free lectures from MIT or any other university of repute. In a world of mobile internet, ubiquitous internet access. Its recommending National knowledge network !! will a student go there or see and hear the latest lecture from a noble laureate. Even the term ICT referring to Information computer technology harks back to the 60’s when some of the committee members actually did their education.
This is the saddest and the most ironical part of higher education the system is ossified because of its sheer reliance on age, hierarchy or seniority. While the world that their students live and learn in has changed. Higher education will not be revived or pulled out from depths of his failure by people who do not have a stake in its future. A retired nuclear scientist more a bureaucrat should not be recommending anything about the future of anything let along higher education. Bureaucrats should be kept far away when it comes to reinventing.
While we struggle with higher education, Europe seems to be eyeing the conscientious Indian student. More and more students are now travelling abroad for education. Earlier cost used to be big barrier for a foreign education. But as our higher education system is collapsing other countries are seeing it as an opportunity. German chancellor Angela Merkel has approved a six year plan to attract Indian students to Germany. Under fire for her liberal immigrant policy she is pushing German universities to attract Indian students waiving off tuition fees for them. Daria Kulemetyeva, of Germany’s largest public university, Georg-August-Universtat Gottingen, says, Indian students will have to pay just the administrative fees of 300 euros per year if they are selected in a course. The travel and accommodation costs are separate. The rationale, according to Kulemetyeva is to seek diversity in the student population.
It is not just German universities, almost every country in Europe and its public universities are keen to attract Indian student. Universities from Sweden, Norway, Spain, and France have been working very hard for the last few years to attract Indian students. They have adapted their courses in English offering free language lessons for immigrant students, etc. A combination of ageing population and fall in interest in higher education among the current generation is forcing these universities to India. British universities have always found India a fertile ground for students.
John Sanders of University of Sussex, says the lack of standards in Indian higher education means that our Indian student population has always been growing year on year. Harish Lokhun of University of Edinburgh says, now Indian students go for even liberal arts and humanities whereas earlier they were only interested in engineering and the likes. Even the oldest university in Europe, Sweden’s Uppasala University is looking for Indian students, and for a reason. Lina Solander, of Uppasala University, “When we are looking at health problems, Indian students would have a much more different view of health policy than a local Swedish student.”
Spain has formed a consortium of four universities to target Indian students. Matilde Delgado Chauton represents Universidad Autnoma De Madrid, one of the leading university which is part of
the consortium. She says, that the gaps in higher education in India means that only a small number of students gets access to quality, we are looking at bridging those gaps by offering a quality education with a European exposure. Spain is also looking at funding Indian students. Indian students have traditionally looked at just US universities for graduation, now they have more avenues opening up.
If India does not look at the collapse of its higher education closely not only will we be leading to a new brain drain but a collapse of aspirations. This is especially of concern to the new government that has come to power on the rise of this aspirational class.
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