Key Metrics

1. The issue is lack of proper teaching, most of the teachers do not even have the minimum knowledge to teach reading and writing effectively even at the Primary level and what is worse do not even be in the school more than half the time. 80 percent of the Teachers in Government schools send their children to a Private school.
2. Chinese Students pay full fees for Education but get easy Loans and many Scholarships, they have no policy of Reservation.
3. Currently about thirteen lakhs Indian students study abroad at an estimated cost of atleast $22.50 billion each year. We should seek to improve our educational institutions and offer such research facilities as to encourage this money to be spent within India.
4. As Malcolm Gladwell notes in his book ‘Outliers’ – it takes about 10,000 hours to develop an adequate level of expertise in any skill and hence, the earlier the start, especially of vocational training, the better.
5. As noted by Dean Keith Simonton – there are enormous and well documented differences between the best and worst performers in any endeavour – The accomplishments and contributions to the credit of the top 10 percent is much more than that of the remaining 90 percent e.g.:
6. 50 percent of the books in the Library of Congress have been written by about 10 percent of the authors.
7. A mere 16 out of 235 (only 7 percent) composers have produced about 50 percent of today’s classical music.
8. Of the professional computer programmers, the most productive are about 10 times more productive than the least productive and 5 times more productive than the average.
9. Workers at the 84th percentile, in jobs requiring low skills, produce about 19 percent more than the average workers at the 50th percentile; in jobs requiring high skills they were 32 percent more productive and for professionals and managers they were 48 percent more productive than the average performers.

“Startups founded by college graduates have 25 percent better sales than those with only high school education. Those with Postgraduate degrees do 40 percent better than those with College degrees.” – Bill Murphy Jr

10. Literacy level as on 15th August 1947 was only about 12 percent. In 2024 it is over 80 percent, despite a threefold increase in population, more in some regions of the country and somewhat lower in other regions, varying from 99.31 percent in Kerala to about 61.8 percent in some States.

However, literacy is not the only measure, though it is an essential requirement, for improvement in living standards, social cohesion, civic consciousness, political empowerment and even National unity.

Language is another important factor. The 3-language, 3-script formula has proved a failure. It is better to encourage the 2-script, 4-language formula from the play-school stage itself to enable our children to become not only nationally but also, globally competitive. Speaking will come first, writing and reading can follow (See-’Languages-make us Strangers in our own Country’). English and Hindustani with the Roman/English script and the ‘Mother’-tongue and Sanskrit with the same mother tongue script is what we should encourage.

The Understanding of Life-long Learning for All in Society (ULLAS), aimed at empowering adults aged 15 and above and who had not received formal education to empower them with basic literacy, critical life skills, and vocational skills and the On-line Teaching, Learning and Assessment System (OTLAS)are steps in the right direction and are proving effective.

“What counts is what works” – Pratham.

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