Indian youth not too keen on college education
Indians have often fancied themselves as proficient speakers of the English language. People, who do not speak the language well, are often subjects of humor. It is considered to be elitist if one has a good command over the language. So much so, that most schools in the urban cities have English as the first language. Even for the rural schools, English is important to learn.
In fact, our Anglophonic needs (need to speak in English) stem from the fact that English is the global language. It is a language spoken by the 'rich' western nations. It is also prominent amongst those nations that are major exporters.
Time and again, it has been stated that one of the reasons for India doing well in the services sector is its Anglophonic ability. This has been cited as a prominent reason for China not doing so well in the same sector. So it would come as a big surprise to all that as per the study conducted by a leading magazine, India ranks quite close to China in terms of its English speaking abilities. In a study of 44 nations, China ranks at 29 while India comes in at 30.
The reason for this could be that India has just become more complacent in terms of its teaching. Unfortunately, the government has been concentrating more on getting more people within the net of the 'educated'. The quality of education is getting completely ignored in the process. And like it or not, English is important for all. It is the way to remain competitive on the global stage. And we have seen this point being proved in the country's service sector. While we may have outpaced China for now, but the latter has been giving a major push towards the language. And if this continues, then India's 'competitive advantage' especially in the service sector may be lost for good.
Continuing our discussion on the Indian education, we came across another interesting piece of statistics that we thought we should share with our readers. This time it is on the percentage of college age population who are actually enrolling in college. (College age population has been defined as the population in the age group of 15 to 24 years). And the picture here is not so good. As reported by a leading daily, India ranks the lowest in this percentage amongst its BRIC peers. One of the reasons for this could be that the country has concentrated primarily on the primary education. All the government's thrust and focus has been towards primary education. As a result, the number of colleges and universities are still quite low when compared to the number of people who wish to enroll in them.
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