India fares poorly in global learning study

A global study of learning standards in 74 countries has ranked India all but at the bottom, sounding a wake-up call for the country’s education system. China came out on top. It was the first time that India participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), coordinated by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). India’s participation was in a pilot project, confined to schools from Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh.

The findings are significant because they come at a time when India is making a big push in education and improving the skills of its workforce. If the results from the two states hold good for the rest of the country, India’s long-term competitiveness may be in question.

Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh traditionally rank high on human development parameters and are considered to be among India’s more progressive states. The India Human Development Report 2011, prepared by the Institute of Applied Manpower Research (IAMR), categorized them as “median” states, putting them significantly ahead of the national average. IAMR is an autonomous arm of the Planning Commission.

For literacy, Himachal Pradesh ranked 4 and Tamil Nadu 11 in the National Family Health Survey released in 2007. Yet, in the PISA study, Tamil Nadu ranked 72 and Himachal Pradesh 73, just ahead of Kyrgyzstan in mathematics and overall reading skills. The eastern Chinese metropolis of Shanghai topped the PISA rankings in all three categories — overall reading skills, mathematical and scientific literacy.

PISA is an international study that began in 2000. It aims to assess education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students in participating economies. To be sure, there are some reservations about the findings of the study. Such comparisons may not be fair as they are not between equals, says Manish Sabharwal, chief executive officer of human resources training and placement firm Teamlease Services Pvt. Ltd. Yet, he argued, it does serve as a timely warning. “Industries are already facing a problem because of poor quality (of graduates),” Sabharwal said. “What we need to do is repair and prepare. Repair by imparting skill training and prepare by improving the school system, which is the main gateway.”

In Tamil Nadu, only 17% of students were estimated to possess proficiency in reading that is at or above the baseline needed to be effective and productive in life. In Himachal Pradesh, this level is 11%. “This compares to 81% of students performing at or above the baseline level in reading in the OECD countries, on an average,” said the study. In other words, only a little over one in six students in Tamil Nadu and nearly one in 10 students in Himachal Pradesh are performing at the OECD average. A similar trend was observed in mathematical and scientific literacy, too.

Anurag Behar, chief executive officer of the Azim Premji Foundation, said the study’s findings were alarming.
This is because the PISA study found that only 12% of students in Himachal Pradesh and 15% in Tamil Nadu were proficient in mathematics against an OECD average of 75%; when it came to scientific literacy among students of class X, the proficiency level in Tamil Nadu was 16% and in Himachal, 11%, as against an OECD average proficiency of 82%. In Malaysia, 56% of students were proficient in reading and 41% in mathematics. Similarly, in the United Arab Emirates, the mathematics proficiency levels was estimated at 49% and for reading, 60%. Like India, both countries participated for the first time.

Behar says there is a need for a complete change of India’s teacher education system and a shift from rote learning-driven school education to understanding-driven curricula. “We also need to reduce the policy-implemenation gap,” he said.

Tamil Nadu education minster C.V.Shanmugam declined to comment on the study’s findings, asserting that the state’s education system is good. “In the last five years, 56,000 teachers were recruited… In which state do they give students laptops?” he said, referring to chief minister J. Jayalalithaa’s free laptop scheme for students that was part of her campaign for elections that brought her All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam​ party back to power in May. “We give incentives for students attending higher secondary. We give Rs. 1,500 (a year) to class X students, Rs. 1,500 to class XI and Rs. 2,000 to class XII. We give Rs. 5,000 if they clear class XII. So steps are being taken to improve the existing system,” he claimed.

Himachal Pradesh education minister Ishwar Dass Dhiman defended his state’s education system. In elementary schools, the enrolment has reached 99.3%, for instance, he said. “If they have taken samples from the interior areas of our state, then we cannot say anything. We are now hiring better qualified teachers to improve the teaching of students.”

Pramath Sinha, an education entrepreneur and former dean of the Indian School of Business​, Hyderabad, said he knew about the deficiencies of India’s education system but was still shocked to find India so low in the PISA rankings. “I belive our lack of urgency will take away the demographic dividend that we could have reaped,” Sinha said.

Not everyone agrees. The study may not be based on an apple-to-apple comparison, says Vipul Prakash, managing director of Elixir Consulting, a recruitment process outsourcing firm. “If you look at the entire people entering the workforce, you may find lack of quality. But if you take the top 10% then they are perhaps the best in the world. This 10% is quite a large number which is giving India a competitive upper hand.”

Source: Mint, December 20, 2011

India tops with 56,000 migrant doctors in OECD countries

India is the top country of origin of migrant doctors in OECD countries with over 56000 Indian doctors in these countries, which include the UK, the US, Canada, and Australia. India also figures at sixth place in the expatriation of nurses to OECD countries (about 23000). In terms of percentages, however, these figures constitute just 8% and 3% respectively of the doctor and nurse population in India, comfortingly low compared to some of the smaller countries severely affected by emigration of doctors such as Mozambique (75%) and Angola (70%). These numbers, revealed by the recently released World Migration Report 2010, however, do not include the large number of Indian doctors and nurses working in the Gulf.

It is estimated that at any given time there are over 100,000 Indian nurses in the GCC (Gulf Coordination Council) countries. “The poor working conditions in India coupled with low salary and the lack of respect at the work place are the top reasons for nurses migrating abroad,” said Sreelekha Nair, of the Centre for Women’s Development Studies at a recently organized seminar on Indian Nursing in the New Era of Healthcare.

The World Migration Report talks about the problem of medical brain drain, especially in African countries. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the number of physicians per 100,000 population for India is 70, which is at par with low-income countries, and for the public sector, the figure is a paltry 20. In the European Union (EU), the figure is 310 physicians per 100,000 population and in the US 240 physicians per 100,000. Similarly, the number of nurses per 100,000 population in India is 80, while it is 330 for the world and 160 for low-income countries.

The WHO threshold for a health workforce crisis is 230 health workers per 100,000 population. For example, India, an origin country, with only 190 health workers per 100,000 persons, is in a crisis state. As destination countries, the UK and the US have ratios of 750 and 1250 health workers per 100,000 persons respectively, which are far above the benchmark. However, there is still a demand for doctors and nurses in these countries. This was pointed out in a background paper, “The Future of Health Worker Migration”, by Professor Binod Khadria of the Zakir Hussain Centre for Educational Studies in JNU. In OECD countries, there is an increasing demand for health workers because of rising incomes, new technology, and an aging population.

In terms of nurses, the Philippines is the main country of origin for nurses, with over 110,000 Filipino nurses working in OECD countries, followed by the UK (just under 46000), Germany (under 32000). According to the OECD data of 2007, the top five countries in terms of emigration rates of nurses are all from the Caribbean Haiti leads with an expatriation rate of 94%, followed by Jamaica (87.7%), Grenada (87.6%), St. Vincent and the Grenadines (81.6%) and Guyana (81.1%).

A lot of the data on migrating health workers could be outdated and also fluctuates a lot depending on the demand around the world. But it is a given that there is no stopping the migration of health workers. “Migration for employment abroad is the basic human right of every health worker — or any skilled worker,” said professor Khadria.

Source: The Times of India, December 24, 2010