Education statistics for India

Higher education is still available only to a tiny slice of India’s young. No more than 10 percent of Indians ages 18 to 25 are enrolled in college, according to official figures. Nearly 40 percent of Indians over the age of 15 are illiterate. With more than half of its population under 25, he said, India could educate its young and open job opportunities for them, or be left with a large, potentially restive pool of unskilled, unemployable youth. Even for the educated college students, most of the 11 million students in India’s 18,000 colleges and universities receive starkly inferior training, heavy on obedience and light on useful job skills. Why is this happening? There is an interesting situation in India matching skilled graduates to jobs... But as graduates complain about a lack of jobs, companies across India see a lack of skilled applicants. The contradiction is explained, experts say, by the poor quality of undergraduate education. India’s thousands of colleges are swallowing millions of new students every year, only to turn out degree holders whom no one wants to hire. A study published by the software trade group last year concluded that only 10 percent of graduates with nonspecialized degrees were considered employable by leading companies, compared with 25 percent of engineers. Interestingly enough: India is that rare country where it seems to get harder to find a job the more educated you are. In the 2001 census, college graduates had higher unemployment — 17 percent — than middle or high school graduates. Source: NYTIMES October 17, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/30/business/worldbusiness/30college.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5088&en=23907b6b6f9b384e&ex=1322542800 National Knowledge Commission: http://knowledgecommission.gov.in/