India+2


 * __India 2- Helen Avis__**

India's education system is far from effective at this point. India gained independence from Britain in 1947 and there are still several issues to be solved within the system. India is somewhat of a patriarchal country and this is evident when looking at the male to female statistics in education. Males are better education than females. Also, there is more money going to tertiary education than primary or secondary which is giving the illusion that the education system is stronger than it actually is.

India ’s history as well as their present is plagued by social and economic inequalities as well as cultural divides. As in most countries the large social problems are playing out in the school system. Throughout history as well as today, those who are receiving educations are the more social elite while most of the girls are now and have been receiving more education through missionary schools instead of through India’s national system. Since the mid-1970s India has been instating five-year plans to try to make primary education accessible to all students ages 6-14 but until teachers are respected and properly educated the system can only be but so effective.

Primary- India has the largest amount of out-of-school children in the world which is resulting in 36% of men and 61% of women being unable to read and write (85). One third of children ages 6-14 are not in school and dropout rates are high (85). These problems seem to stem from the caste system in India which branches out past just Hindu religion. Education is free across the country for ages 6- 14 and split into primary, ages 6-10, and upper primary or middle stages, ages 10-13 (85). While this education is free there may be a great deal of travel involved for students to get to school which is also a contributing factor in the high dropout rate. Often rural schools are limited to one or two teachers who teach all levels of students and class sizes are very large.

Secondary- The number of students attending secondary education schooling drops and the divide between male and female education widens as well.

Tertiary- More government funding goes to tertiary education than primary and secondary education. The only people able to go to universities however are the more privileged. This poses the problem of the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer. India has the second largest population in the world and a very high population growth rate at 1.407% which is going to increase the gap further. I also recently heard an interview with a young Indian entrepreneur on NPR in which he stated the tertiary education did not properly prepare students for the Indian business market because there were so many ways in which the system is broken.

Human and Financial Resources- In 2005 3.2% of the GDP went into education expenditures. This placed India at number 140 when compared to all other countries. For a country that has the second largest population, the second highest number of cell phones, the fourth highest number of Internet users, and a large population growth rate education should be higher on the list of priorities in order to become a more influential world power.