Though it is generally held that while primary education in India stinks, higher education is brilliant, this is not entirely true. The top elitist institutions are second to none, for sure, but many – in fact the majority – who graduate from mainstream institutions of “higher learning” are considered unemployable.
Growth has allowed the rich to acquire more private gains, but has hampered the poor by neglecting social public goods, including the very basics of health, nutrition, education and shelter.
Pallavi Aiyar, author of “Smoke and Mirrors: An Experience of China,” wrote that if you are born rich, choose India, if you are born poor, choose China – because of higher levels of basic education in China, there is correspondingly much more social mobility. Indian thought leaders also bemoan the fact that contemporary Indian society suffers from a compassion deficit and widespread insensitivity, especially among the new brash business and finance elites.
The situation is grim; as is the outlook if present trends continue.
Jean-Pierre Lehmann in Wall Street Journal. More
