|
Panel Detail:
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
2:30 PM - 3:45 PM
India's Human Capital: Educating the World's Largest Population of Children
Speakers:
Pramod Maheshwari,
Founder and CEO, Career Point
Grace Pinto,
Managing Director, Ryan International Group of Institutions
Anand Sudarshan,
Managing Director and CEO, Manipal Education
Jeremy Williams,
Chief Academic Officer, Knowledge Universe Education
Moderator:
Dilip Thakore, Publisher and Editor, Education World
India's children number 1 1/2 times the population of the United States, and educating 450 million children is not one of the priorities of the Indian government, according to Moderator Dilip Thakore of Education World. Of the 450 million children in India, just 10 million will go on to higher education.
Grace Pinto of Ryan International Group has started more than 200 private schools across the country. Among the biggest challenges are the rules and regulations for creating private schools in the different states in India. As a result, she said it is important to develop a friendly relationship with the state and national government to create more educational opportunities for children. Pinto also noted that one must take into account the different languages and cultures that exist in the country when creating schools in different states.
If a foreigner is interested in investing in India’s educational system, she said, it is essential to have a credible Indian partner to help navigate the educational system. While is it challenging to start up a private school as a foreigner, it is possible through private-public partnerships, Pinto said. Moderator Dilip Thakore emphasized how challenging it is to create private education institutions in India and said the government "doesn’t want to do it themselves, but they don’t want others to do it."
Pramod Maheshwari brought about another point about the competitiveness of higher education in India. Although only 10 million students will continue onto higher education, there are just six educational institutes that meet global education standards. Thus private career coaching to prepare students for acceptance into these institutions is a competitive business. Accessibility to career coaching is a major challenge, and one way Maheshwari said that United States can help is through technology that will allow the delivery of education to remote, rural locations. The fact that 80 percent of rural schools do not have electricity remains a major problem.
Another challenge is teacher absenteeism of around 25 percent, Jeremy Williams said. "Part of the problem is that there is a disconnect between the learner and the teacher," he said. In addition, little has changed in India's curriculum in the past 60 years, and teacher training is far outdated.
Anand Sudarshan was more optimistic, saying opportunities certainly exist in India. Individual aspirations are extremely high, and the lengths to which middle-class families will go to for their children’s education is remarkable, he said.
An audience member asked about the lack of education for girls. Generally, girls are not allowed to continue beyond fifth grade, Pinto said. However, the private sector has been able to reach out to young girls by providing evening classes. Special education is weakness in India's public education system, but private schools are addressing the issue, including Pinto’s Ryan Group.
| 
