Group 9_B | SDG 4 : Quality Education

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SDG 4- Quality Education

Authored by

Arihant Chaturvedi        BJ21074

Ashwin Harsha              BJ21076

Harsh Daliya                  BJ21084

Pooja Vatnani                 BJ21099

Tanishq Mehrotra            BJ21117

Upamanyu Chatterjee     BJ21118

Vaibhav Sanghi               BJ21119

 Introduction

 

It was first in 1993 that the Honorable Supreme Court of India ruled that ‘Education’ was a fundamental right derived from the Right to Life in Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. But it was finally in 2009, that it became a law after the President's ascent as The Children’s Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act RTE, 2009. With this, India became the 135th country in the world to classify education as a fundamental right. This was in line with the United Nations universal declaration on human rights adopted in 1941 which states that, “Every human being has the right to education.”

Education acts as a crucial factor in determining the standard of living and is an important part of the process for the upliftment of people in less developed regions. That, in no way means that it is of any less significance in the developed world. Owing to its importance in people’s lives, it was adopted as one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (precisely, Goal #4) by the United Nations in 2015. The major objective of it is to make quality education accessible to all, not only improving the present but also safeguarding the future for people and humanity as a whole.

The goal of quality education has a total of 7 targets, all of which are to be achieved till the year 2030, and each target has indicator(s) in order to quantify the progress made on each front. The targets include; (1) free primary and secondary education, (2) equal access to quality pre-primary education, (3) equal access to affordable technical, vocational and higher education, (4) increase the number of people with relevant skills for financial success, (5) eliminate all discrimination in education, (6) universal literacy and numeracy, and (7) education for sustainable development and global citizenship.

Relevance of Quality education in India

In a world where Developed Nations see education as the highest priority, where governments like the Canadian government pays for children’s education until the 11th or the 12th grade (depending on the province), India, according to the Economic Survey 2020-21, spends about 3- 3.5 per cent of its GDP on education. Compare this with the already developed nations like the US that spends roughly 6% of its GDP and the highest being Norway with 6.7% [1] . This brings us to the real question. Is education really a priority for India?
 

The State of Primary education

Although the population of India has grown through the years, primary grade enrollment numbers have stayed still, as illustrated by the graph below. [2]



The good news is that the primary education completion rate according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics was 91.6% in 2019, however, this number may not represent the ground reality since overage and underage students also enroll in primary schools commonly across the country.
 

School Infrastructure in India - Electricity, Sanitation, Drinking Water

The digital penetration is evident across the country, but unfortunately, 9 Lakh schools do not have computers, 11 lakh don’t have internet. But these would have been “good to have facilities” when we realize that 22.67% of the public schools don’t even have electricity and 10% of schools don’t have hand wash facilities. This is where organizations like ITC have stepped in to bring innovative solutions like the chalk-sticks healthy hands swastha India initiative.
 

Employability after education

There is no denying that there have been improvements in the education sector in India for example more girl student enrollments, construction of toilets in public schools. However, the most worrisome indicator is the employability of Indian students. Less than half of the Indian graduates are employable, according to the eighth India Skills Report. [3]

Covid 19 Impact on education in India

The pandemic affected 250 Million [4] students in India, as schools closed across the country. There is an increasing threat of students dropping out of school with the break-in momentum caused by lack of resources both from the demand and supply side. Only 1 in 4 teachers In India were equipped and trained to teach online. This further highlights the need for innovative reforms to make education more accessible, possibly aided by technology. [6]

 

Business Implications and Responses

Until recently, physical capital was always considered the most important thing that determines economic development & economic growth. However, in the last three decades, economic research has revealed the emergence of another factor, education, as a crucial factor in economic development. Due to its contribution to economic development, education is also known as human capital, and investment in this area is known as an investment in human capital.

Investment in human capital is the force that is driving today's businesses and is a source of competitive advantage for many organizations. Many service-oriented organizations such as Mckinsey, BCG, Bain, etc., rely heavily on the quality of workforce they employ to gain reliability about the solutions they offer to their clients. This standard of quality of the workforce is necessarily determined & rated by the education levels of its employees.

A higher level of quality education has made India the back-office hub of the world. The level of education has also had a significant role in the development of the Indian IT industry. Many MNCs have opened their offices in India to gain the advantage of the low-cost & highly skilled workforce that the country can offer. However, as per a report by ASSOCHAM, merely 20% of the 5 million students graduating every year get employed in India, which speaks volumes about the quality of education that students are currently getting. It has often been pointed out that there is a gap between what is taught in classrooms & what is required by the industry.

Many startups focused on providing courses in the industry-relevant curriculum have come up to bridge this gap, creating a unique industry of their own. Some of these startups have goals aligning with the SDG, and they work on providing quality education to the underprivileged. One of the many startups providing quality education in rural areas is Learning Delight, which offers digital learning tools to aid teachers and increase student engagement in rural schools with government-aided computer labs and mobile applications. Some organizations, such as Agastya International Foundation, provide teachers with training to address gaps in the education system.

Along with this, the government has also started focusing and increasing spending on vocational educational institutions. Under its flagship umbrella program, "National Education Mission," which comprises five different schemes, the Government of India" has allocated funds to the tune of ₹39,160 Crore in the annual 2020-21 budget. Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA), a not-for-profit organization, has also been set up by the GOI to raise funds to the tune of ₹30,000 Crore.

Analysis and The Road Ahead

Samsung

Samsung Smart School Initiative is one of their highlight CSR initiatives. In it they set up smart classes in government schools (Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya). These are residential schools which are managed by the central government for talented young children especially in the rural regions of India. Teachers are also trained under this program thus helping everyone in the process. Many Samsung products are used in the smart schools set up by them. Vinayak Garg, the commissioner of Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti was quoted as saying, “JNV students are among the best performing students in the country, and their access to the latest technology through this CSR programme has been a strong advantage for them.” The initiative is well-structured and is in line with the global steps Samsung is taking to make education accessible to all.

PwC

PwC India Foundation is working on a project to deliver quality education and concept-based learning to 500 impoverished girls in Darjeeling, collaborating with K.C. Mahindra Education Trust and Naandi Foundation. Project Nanhi Kali is the name of the initiative. The target population consists of female students in grades 1 through 5 who are from families without any prior access to education. Due to social and financial factors, over 30% of Indian students drop out before finishing high school. A disproportionate percentage of these are women, and Project Nanhi Kali is working to change that.

RPG Enterprises

RPG Foundation, a Public Charitable Trust, was registered in the year 1950 to drive social impact initiatives for RPG Group Companies. In the year 2008, Pehlay Akshar was incubated as a program under RPG Foundation in order to make excellent education accessible to students and prepare them to be future-ready.

It operates on the concept of creating safe spaces by partnering with State Governments to implement programs that encourage learning not just for students but teachers as well.

A few of the student-centric programs run by Pehlay Akshar Foundation include, a 6 year in-class teaching program in partnership with government schools to teach English; video-based Magic Classroom on television broadcasted on DD Sahyadri; A Story A Day, which entails fun and engaging English stories in video format recorded by volunteers.

Through these efforts over the years, Pehlay Akshar Foundation has reached more than 2 lac students in 3 states.

Axis Bank

Axis Bank Foundation has worked closely with its partners to enhance employment opportunities for Indian youth, including persons with disabilities. It has set up skilling centers for youth across rural and semi urban areas, which provides courses in several trades & industry sectors. The programme offers soft skills training as well as counseling to prepare trainees for employment, in accordance with the trainees’ chosen career path and goals. The foundation has undertaken 5 skill development projects in FY 20-21. Currently 92 skill centers are operational which have trained 37,435 youth across India and out of the above 60% have also been placed in good jobs. Other than above, 10,977 people with disabilities have also been trained by these centers which has allowed PWDs an opportunity to earn their own livelihood in a respectable manner.

The Path Ahead

Education at all levels is highly standardized in India and therefore may not be relevant for all. At every level of education we can see clear instances of mismatch between what we use in industry and what is taught in classrooms. This is where companies can change their outlook and think about making quality education available for all. Tata Consultancy Services or TCS for example has partnered with 4 colleges across different states to provide big data 2-year courses. At the end of these 2 years the 30 students of the batch get placed in TCS. The company solves the shortage of skilled personnel and the students learn state of the art competencies for the market. Very recently Masters’ Union School of Business, Gurgaon, reported great placement figures and it was only their first placement batch. This can be attributed to some of the most successful professionals being at the helm of the institute.




The abovementioned skills cannot be taught and can rather be experienced. The closest one can come to experiencing these soft skills in a college environment is by interacting and listening to professionals from the field. Companies also spend a lot of time and resources training professionals during their initial time. This part can also be skipped by training these students in college itself. Business schools and companies have to collaborate with each other so that students, faculty and the firm, all attain maximum benefit from the exchange of knowledge.

References

1. https://www.statista.com/chart/15434/the-countries-spending-the-most-on-education/
2.https://centralsquarefoundation.org/school-education-in-india-data-trends-and-policies-eng-2020/metrics.html
3.https://indianexpress.com/article/education/less-than-half-of-indian-graduates-are-employable-btechs-have-highest-skills-report-7194119/
4.https://home.kpmg/in/en/home/insights/2021/10/nep-covid-19-school-education-assessments.html
5.http://newasiaforum.ris.org.in/sites/default/files/Publication%20File/DP%20232%20Dr%20Beena%20Pandey.pdf

6.https://www.thehindu.com/data/data-only-1-in-4-teachers-in-india-trained-to-teach-online-classes/article35375719.ece
7.https://blog.ipleaders.in/right-to-education-3/
8.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Goal_4
9.https://www.intosaicommunity.net/document/articlelibrary/Budget_of_India_2020-2021_and_Sustainable_Development_Goals.pdf
10.https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/economics/the-role-of-education-in-economic-development/38355
11.https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/skill-development-education-key-to-indias-growth-story/
12.https://thecsrjournal.in/samsung-smart-school-csr-initiative-navodaya-schools/
13.https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech-news/tcs-partners-with-four-colleges-to-offer-courses-on-big-data/articleshow/52869146.cms
14.https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/employers-say-students-arent-learning-soft-skills-in-college.aspx
15.https://www.pwc.in/pwc-india-foundation.html
16.https://pehlayakshar.org/
17.https://www.rpggroup.com/rpg-foundation/
18.https://www.axisbank.com/csr/csr-reports-disclosures