Ellen Greaves, Ed.D., J.D., Executive Director, Professional Educators of North Carolina

LEARNING FROM INDIA:
How Education Policy Has Impacted India’s Rise as a Global Economic Power part 2

In a previous article, I shared an overview of our delegation’s trip to India. In this article and my next article I will focus on the nature of education in India. In a subsequent article, I will describe what we learned from the high-tech companies we visited. And, finally, I will set out our suggestions for how North Carolina can learn from India in making sure that we have the very best education system for our children.

India is one of the ancient civilizations, with over 5,000 years of history. India is organized into 28 states and some additional self-governing areas. The boundaries of these states often were the result of occupation or control by invaders. Most recently, India was under the control of Great Britain, gaining its independence as recently as 1947. England’s impact on India remains very powerful. First, English is one of the two official national languages (along with Hindi). English is the international language of business and the World Wide Web, so Indians have not had to deal with language obstacles in dealing with those in other countries. England also provided a system of laws and protections for commerce, which—compared with China, for example—gave India an advantage in protecting intellectual property rights. England also left India with a civil service system and a framework for government, including education.

The Indian approach to education is a meritocracy in that it rewards those who achieve at the highest levels academically. In a country of over a billion people (India is the second largest country in the world), they are required constitutionally to provide schooling for everyone but, in fact, do not succeed. Repeatedly we were told that those in rural areas (70% of India’s population) receive less education than those in urban areas. Closing the gap between rural and urban education was often cited as a top priority of the national government.

A clear national policy on education focusing on math, science and technology is something that sets India apart from the U.S.

Floral arrangement at entrance to the Salwan School in the Delhi area

In the 1960s India established a system that provided the potential to enhance the country’s ability to educate their brightest and best and prepared it to become a global economic power. These measures were taken as the result of a Commission on Education and Economic Development, which concluded that India’s education policies should support the economic development of the country. They established a national system of Institutes in Technology, Science, Mathematics, and Management. These Institutes are richly endowed, set on acres of beautifully landscaped property, and staffed with highly trained faculty, many who earned graduate degrees in the United States. These Institutes are attended by students who, from grade school, have excelled on national tests. Faculty members at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, one of the world’s best engineering schools, told us that they looked at prospective students’ performance on tests as early as middle school.

Rep. Doug Yongue (D Scotland County) and Dr. Greaves with students at Navodaya Viyalaya School, Delhi.

Indian children, when asked what they want to be when they grow up, will respond first with “engineers,” and secondly, “doctors.” There is no greater honor for a family and for a high school than to have a student of theirs be admitted to one of the Institutes. Acceptance is highly competitive and dependent on a student’s math, science, and technology skills. For example, our delegation learned that for the 1,200 spots available at the Institute for Management in Bangalore, 250,000 students take the entrance examination. Once admitted, a student is assured of a world-class education paid for almost exclusively by the federal government.

Dr. Greaves, Monisha Sharma--head girl, Dr. Sam Houston, and other student, Salwan School

Education is viewed as the ticket to a better future economically and socially, much like immigrants have viewed education in the U.S. The competitiveness of the admissions process results in Indian students approaching their studies very seriously. They are highly motivated and focused. High school students not only attend a full school day, but then attend tutoring programs designed to get them prepared to perform well on the nationwide entrance exams. The delegation walked through Old Delhi and saw bookstores that, rather than displaying posters of best-selling novels, advertised books that would help students prepare for the upcoming tests. Families support the children and the schools. One teacher told us that parents will stay up with their children as they do their homework to ensure their children know that what they’re doing is valued.

Chemistry lab, Salwan School

We saw a very limited number of schools that were not necessarily representative of those throughout India, but we were struck at how simple the schools were. They were clean, but not fancy. They had well-equipped computer labs where we saw two or more students working on each computer on projects requiring the use of C++ (the current standard programming language). But the chemistry lab I visited reminded me of one in my high school during the mid 1960s in suburban Chicago. They didn’t seem to require expensive equipment in order for their students to excel.