Why Indian Education is lagging behind?

India has the second-largest population in the world (i.e. 138.001 Crore i.e. approx. 1.4 Billion in 2020 ) and the world’s largest young population of about 56 Crore, in the age bracket of 5-25 years.

Let’s see some basic information about the Indian education system and then compare it with the USA and China. There are more than 1.6 million schools in India, out of which 18,006 are CBSE schools, 2,39,000 are private schools (State Board), and the rest all are government state board. In total, there are 903 Universities under which 39,050 Graduate and Post-Graduate level Colleges and 12,276 stand-alone Institutes.

GDP of the USA is 22.32 lakh crore USD(22.32 Trillion $) out of which 6.2 % is spent on the education sector (i.e. 1383.9 Billion $) while, GDP of India is 2.61 lakh crore USD(i.e. 2610 Billion $) and 4.6 % of it is spent on the education sector (i.e. 120.06 Billion $). Now considering the population, The USA’s total population is 33.1 crores (i.e. 331 Million) of which 8.465 crores (i.e. 84.65 Million) population in the age bracket of 5-25 years. That means the USA spends 1383.9 Billion $ on an education sector over only an 8.465 crore population. India’s total population is 138.001 crore (i.e. 1.38 Billion) out of which 56 crores (i.e. 560 Million) population lies in the age bracket of 5-25 years. This means that the Indian government spends 120.06 Billion $ on the population of 56 crores for their education.

Many people will think that India’s steady development is hindered by its large population.  In order to prove that this is a myth, we will consider the example of China (the
World’s largest population country). GDP of China is 13.37 lakh crore USD (i.e. 13.37 Trillion $) and spends 4 % of the total GDP on education sector (i.e. 534.8 Billion $ ). China’s population, being 143.9 crores (i.e. 1.439 billion), is more than India’s population. However, the population in the age bracket of 5-25 years is less than that of India i.e. 43.1 crores (i.e. 431 million).  This means that China spends 534.8 Billion $ on a population of 43.1 crores, i.e. approximately 5 times more money than India for a lesser population by 12.9 crores (i.e. 129 million ). 

Due to a lack of proper investment and attention to the education system in India, our students suffer a lot and face problems such as poor infrastructure, mid-day meals drinking water facilities and broken toilets etc. These problems are not big enough to affect the future of students but there are few problems which are dragging the future of students to the darker side such as unavailability of teachers (especially in rural areas), poor teaching quality, unavailability of any guidance, and other similar types of problems pushing India towards unemployment and average performing employees.

              In other countries, a person who is a scientist, researcher, or at least the best in his/her field, is recruited as a teacher. However, in India, a person who is not a good fit at the corporate world jobs thinks to be a teacher. There are thousands of problems in our Indian education system and the above data is more than enough to understand the root cause of all those problems.

 

Comparing GDP, Population & Amount of money Spend On Educational Sector of Selected Countries

Countries	GDP (In Trillion $)	% of GDP spent on education	The total amount of money spent on education	Total Population	Population in the Age bracket   5yr-25yrs
India	02.61	4.6% from 2019      (Before 2019 - 3.8%)	120.6 Billion $ from 2019   (Before 2019 - 98.8  Billion $)	138.001 crore           (i.e. 1.38 Billion)	56 crore     (i.e. 560 Million)
USA	22.32	6.2%	1383.9 Billion$	33.1 crore   (i.e. 331 Million)	8.465 crore   (i.e. 84.65 Million)
China	13.37	4.0%	534.8 Billion $	143.9 crore (i.e. 1.439 Billion)	43.1 crore (i.e. 431 Million)

(The data is according to the year 2020)